Bond of Friendship: A Different sort of Bleach
by FireSamurai
Summary: One little action could change the course of so many others. For Tatsuki. it was comforting a young Ichigo on the banks of the Rubicon. WARNING: This is Bleach done OUR way.
1. Childhood Memories

FireSamurai: Konnichiwa everyone! Well, my beta reader (Dragon and Sword Master) and myself have been talking recently about Bleach and we have decided to Co-write this bleach story together! I dunno about Master but I myself never really used original characters but I will try my best to make sure I dun mess the characters to much on my parts...

ANYWAY! On with the story!

Disclaimer: We do not own bleach or any of its characters.

* * *

**Chapter 1 Childhood Memories**

She ran as she heard the news, that terrible, horrible news.

'_How could this have happened,'_ she thought,_ 'How could something as terrible as that happen to someone like him?'_ She then turned a corner, and then another corner, running even quicker through the winding streets of Karakura. She knew exactly where she was heading but only hoped that the one she was looking for wasn't there. Now, Tatsuki would never admit this, being somewhat of a tomboy, but the news she just heard shocked her to the very core…

* * *

It was a normal day at the dojo. Everyone was walking in, duffle bags ready for their lesson. A small nine year old girl with black hair and brown eyes sat ready on a nearby bench, every once and a while looking over to the door, waiting for a certain orange haired boy to walk through. She could only grin as she tightened her karate gloves, hoping to get a change to get that boy back for that win he got on her last time. Oh, boy was she going to pay him back. Minutes passed and still no sign of the bright haired youth. She was actually starting to worry. She knew that he would never miss karate unless something bad had happen. _'I hope nothing had happened to him.'_ Tatsuki thought, her eyes still on the doorway. 

"Alright class," She heard her sensei yell. "Everyone gather around." Tatsuki frowned when she heard this. Her friend was never really the one to be late. As she and the other students gathered around their Sensei, she had a bit of worry fill her as she saw the look on their Sensei's face. "Class," He started. "I am sorry to say but Kurosaki Ichigo will not be joining us in the dojo for quite sometime." The moment Sensei finished, gasps and whispers started going through the small group of students.

Random things like "I wonder why he isn't coming?" "He probably got fed up with Tatsuki beating him up," "Yeah, any guy would quit karate if they kept getting beat up by a girl." This earned a few laughs but Tatsuki wouldn't hear any of it. "ENOUGH!" She yelled, standing up and glaring at all the other students. She then turned to the Sensei, bowing when she did. "Sensei, please tell us why Ichigo isn't coming anymore." She asked. The Sensei only smiled a warm, sad smile as he looked down at Tatsuki.

"I am sorry to say, but Ichigo's mother was killed. As for how it had happened, I am not sure. I do not have all the details." The Sensei said, shocking everyone, especially Tatsuki.

'_Ichigo's…mother…dead,'_ she thought. _'That just can't be!'_ She can't accept that fact! She won't accept it! One of her best friend's (she would never admit that either) mother had just been killed. She had to find him! Without warning, Tatsuki ran out of the door, looking for the orange haired youth…

* * *

As she kept running, she kept that thought in her head, including the thought, _'Please let what sensei said be wrong. He didn't deserve something like that'_ as she kept running towards the one spot she knew he would be, the riverside. Once there, she knew right away that her thoughts and prayers wouldn't be answered as she saw the orange-haired boy walking back and forth along the river. A small smile crept on her face as she was about to yell "Ichigo!" but stopped when he turned slightly. What she saw made her smile completely vanish. 

Now, normally, if someone looked at Ichigo right now, that person would think nothing was wrong with him. Tatsuki, however, was not a normal person. She knew Ichigo and this was not Ichigo. This was not the Ichigo that she knew. Where was the Ichigo that always had a small glint in his eye? Where was the Ichigo whose bright sun like hair made people around him happy? The Ichigo whose smile was so infectious that even she could help but smile after she lost to him that one time? The Ichigo before her was not this Ichigo. His eyes seemed dull and lifeless, as his hair didn't have that normal shine that it usually had. Even his once infectious smile was replaced with not a frown, but with…well Tatsuki didn't know but she didn't like it.

With a small gulp, Tatsuki approached the orange haired youth. "Ichigo?" She whispered. She got no response as the boy before her just continued to stare off into space. Tatsuki then decided to approach him a little closer.

"Hello, Ichigo?" She asked again but still got no response. She then stood right next to the boy, his eyes still looking lifeless.

"You there Ichigo?" Tatsuki asked, but was still getting no response. Anger started to grow inside her with a little hint of worry. She decided to take another approach.

"Come on Ichigo, it's not the end of the world!" she said, saying anything to get the Ichigo she knew back, and for this...this thing to go away.

"It was my fault. If only I didn't go near the river..." Ichigo started to say before crying again.

"What do you mean?" Tatsuki asked, but Ichigo ignored her. Usually she didn't mind when people ignored her, but her one friend that was presently ignoring her, well that ticked her off. After trying for over 10 minutes to get him to talk, she finally lost it. With one mighty blow, Tatsuki slapped Ichigo across the face.

"Damn it, Ichigo!" She cried, some tears stinging the corner of her eyes.

"Why won't you talk to me?" She then quickly embraced him in a tight hug.

"Please talk to me." She whispered into his shirt, her tears making a wet spot on her friend's shoulder.

"I know you are hurting. Please let me help you." If she looked up at that moment, she would have seen the small glint come back in his warm brown eyes.

"Tatsuki..."

* * *

**_3 years later…_**

Tatsuki was late to her karate class. This statement within itself usually was a mistake since she was always the first one there. However, this time, several people who wanted to get back at her for losing to her caught up to her.

_'Damn idiots, didn't they learn the first time that I could kick their butts halfway to next year?'_ She thought to herself as she kept running. However, she stopped as she heard a scream in the near distance.

"Stop, please stop," was all that Tatsuki heard, but she knew that whoever it was, needed help. Investigating the incident, she saw a group of girls with scissors in their hands, huddled around a girl, with long strands of orange hair.

"That will teach you not to grow your hair again Orihime," one of the girls said, as Inoue just kept crying and asking them to stop.

'Of all the nerve...' She thought to herself as she turned towards the entrance of where she first heard the screams. She tapped one of the girl's shoulders and when the girl turned around, she received a vicious left punch, breaking her jaw. Once the other girls saw that, they ran like the cowards they were. Tatsuki noticed the crying girl in the middle, and extended her hand.

"Here, let me help." She said as the girl grabbed her hand.

"Thank you."

"No problem. I hate seeing people gang up on a person to hurt a weaker person. My name is Arisawa Tatsuki."

"Thank you Arisawa-san, my name is Orihime Inoue, but you can call me Inoue."

"Alright, but only if you call me Tatsuki"

"Deal" Inoue said, as she heard footsteps in the distance.

During this, Tatsuki heard footsteps from the way that the remaining girls left. Standing in front of her protectively just in case the girls wanted more punishment or not. However, she saw orange hair and the face of Ichigo as he arrived at the park.

"So that's where you were. Sensei was worried since you didn't show up. Who's that behind you?"

"Her name is Inoue. Inoue this is Kurosaki Ichigo." Tatsuki said to Ichigo as she relaxed. Ichigo noticed the girl sprawled out with a broken jaw.

"I assume that was your handy work."

"Yeah, apparently her friends and she thought that Inoue had too much hair so they thought it beneficial of them to cut it for her, and you know me about people ganging up on weaker people."

"Indeed I do Tatsuki, indeed I do."

* * *

**_1 year later…_**

'_Damn that Ichigo,'_ Tatsuki thought as she raced down the streets once more. _'He just had to stick his nose into where it doesn't belong.' _

Well, if you are wondering how this all happened, here goes. It was a Sunday when Tatsuki and Ichigo are supposed to meet up; making it a tradition to meet up every Sunday to hang out at the park and just really hang out and have some fun. When she was five minutes away, she got a call on her cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Tatsuki, its Ichigo." She heard.

"Hey Ichigo, What's up?"

"I think I might not be able to make," She heard a grunt, "Today." She heard another grunt. "Something important came," grunt, "up."

"Like What Ichigo?"

"I'll tell you once I'm done helping a friend." He said before closing the phone.

"Grr...He's going to get a piece of my mind when he sees me." She said as she started running. (In truth though, she wanted to make sure that he was all right). Judging by the background noise, it seemed that there were car horns above his position. That must mean that they were under a bridge.

'_That must mean….'_ Tatsuki thought and she took a sharp turn towards the riverside. She quickly ran along the river to come to a strange sight.

Ichigo looked beat up as he laid there on his back looking up at Chad, around him the six gang members laid beaten up as well.

"Why are you helping me Ichigo?"

"It's because you don't want to fight for yourself Sado." Ichigo then took out the gold coin that meant so much to the bronze giant before him. "How about this Chad? You can just not hit people for your own sake as you've done 'til now. In exchange, you hit for my sake. And I'll hit for your sake. If it's something that you'll risk your life to protect, I'll risk my life to protect it, too. It's a promise man." Ichigo said, grinning with one eye open.

"Yeah," Sado responded. It was then that Tatsuki appears as she sees him on his back. It was then that Ichigo noticed a figure coming closer towards them. He could only blink in surprise at the figure that he saw.

"Tatsuki, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to give you a piece of my mind for cutting that call short and telling me that something more important came up." She yelled. Ichigo could only scowl at her.

"Well this was important! Chad was getting his ass handed to him and he needed my help!" Ichigo said. Tatsuki could only sigh at this.

"I will never understand the gender known as males," she mumbled as she helped her male friends…………

* * *

Dragon and Sword Master: And that as we say is the opening bell, so let the games begin, as we conspire together to write a multi-chapter story of Tatsuki and Ichigo! Besides, even though they seem to look as a great couple, I only saw three one-shots on the topic! 

FireSamurai: Here here!

Phoenix and Staff Master: So that means the two of you will be making history?

Dragon and Sword Master: It seems so.

FireSamurai: (sighs) Better get more sake...

Dragon and Sword Master: seems like a good idea, especially with her here

FireSamurai: lol (goes off to get the sake)

Dragon and Sword Master: (sweatdrops) Everyone, Ja Ne.


	2. There is Always a Beggining

Dragon and Sword Master: If anyone can tell me, where I got the idea for my chapter title will get a spoiler on one of my own stories excluding this one.

Ryu: Hey, where's your partner?

Dragon and Sword Master: He's over there passed out from all the sake we drank last chapter after creating history. I'm gonna feel sorry for him when he wakes up.

Ryu: Anyways, we have some interesting info for you. Yet there are no reviews for this story we currently: have 92 hits, been posted on a C2 form, and are on 4 people's alert list.

Dragon and Sword Master: That is interesting. I wonder why people haven't reviewed as of yet. People, if you're going to do all that stuff above, can you please leave a review as well?

* * *

**Chapter 2 There is Always a Beginning**

"Ichigo, Time to wake up!' His father said as he did a missile drop kick towards the bed of where Ichigo slept.

"Jeez dad, are you trying to kill me?" Ichigo asks as he rolls out of bed and dodges the attack, while retaliating with a kick of his own. This continued as they near the stairs, trading punches and kicks as Ichigo and Isshin both trade positions and advantages of being on the higher step.

At the bottom of the staircase was Karin, ignoring the two arguing idiots as usual. Along side Karin was a girl the same age as Ichigo, and she looked mad.

"If you two idiots would stop acting like children and start acting your normal age, then we would have been at school by now." Tatsuki said, while Karin just shook her head.

"Tatsuki, you should know by now that Ichi-nii-san and Otou-san will always do that." Karin replied as she sat down at the table and started to eat the rice that Yuzu prepared for breakfast.

"Come on Ichigo, you can get revenge on your father later. Right now we have to go to school." Tatsuki said, as she pulled a fighting Ichigo off his father. The last thing that Tatsuki saw was his father crying to a large poster of his wife, muttering something.

"Tatsuki?" Ichigo blinked in surprise. "What are you do-" Ichigo started again but got cut off by a punch from Isshin.

"Ha ha Ichigo! You let your guard down!" Isshin claimed before receiving a kick to his gut and the battle continued once more. During this, they never noticed a trembling Tatsuki standing below them. Though, she was not trembling with sadness. No, no, it was far from that……….

"Isshin-san that's enough!" Tatsuki finally yelled after this had gone on for longer than five minutes. This made him stop long enough for Ichigo to get a punch in.

"Who's guard is down now?" He asked before Tatsuki grabbed both of their ears.

"That's enough, both of you! Ichigo, in case you forgotten, yesterday was the last day of summer vacation, which means that today is the first day of school. I don't want us being late at all this year!" She said to the orange haired boy.

At hearing the word "us" come from Tatsuki, Isshin quickly perked up.

"Ichigo, you didn't tell me Tatsuki was your girlfriend…" He started to say before both Ichigo and Tatsuki kicked him in the face, shutting him up as they left. They didn't see Isshin look up to a portrait of their mother, asking her what he was doing wrong.

"I can't believe your father suggested something like that of all things! Yuzu needs to stop him from watching too much hentai." Tatsuki said, mad at the comment that was issued before they left the Kurosaki house/hospital.

"I don't think she can, since he probably watches it after we all fall asleep." Ichigo replied while scratching the back of his head. As they are walking, Ichigo sees something out of the corner of his and turns to look. However, once he turns, nothing is there.

"Come on slowpoke, we don't want to be late, unless you want me to beat you again." Tatsuki said as Ichigo caught up to her. The thing that Ichigo thought he saw returned to the area, and looked towards him with fear. She wasn't sure if she should ask for her help or not. This spirit medium wasn't the only one in Karakura Town, but many spirits knew that Kurosaki Ichigo was the best spirit medium.

"So, what was that all about?" Tatsuki asked as Ichigo caught up to her.

"I thought I saw a girl" was his reply, adding, "I know it was a spirit, but why didn't she want to ask for my help?"

"Don't worry about it right now. She must have known that today is the first day of school and that you were running late with your friend." Tatsuki said, not fazed at all about Ichigo's special ability.

Ichigo frowned but nodded as he followed his best friend. Something about that ghost made Ichigo feel…………it was hard to put into words. It was like something bad was going to happen. The fear in that little girl's eyes…….

"Oi! Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Hurry up! I think I hear the bell ringing!" She yelled again over her back, doing a straight dash towards the school.

"Ah crap!" Ichigo yelled, running after her, trying to make it to the school before the door closed, signifying that they were late. Outside the classroom were two of Ichigo's friends.

"Hey Mizuro, lets see how long it will take before those two get to school." Keigo said to the person sitting next to him to past the time. As their countdown got to one, Ichigo and Tatsuki ran into the classroom, Tatsuki with a look that said she would kill you if you messed with her and Ichigo had a frown on his face. He was currently thinking of something as he was looking down, barely missing the other people and desks.

"Oi, Ichigo! I thought you would sleep in on the first day." Keigo said as Ichigo sat down at his desk.

"With my father and Tatsuki acting as alarm clocks, I doubt that would happen." Ichigo replied as the teacher came in and the first day of school began. As the day went by, Ichigo jotted down notes and listened, even though he pretended not to. As the final bell struck, all of the students rose from their seat and headed for the door.

As Ichigo came out of the school, the girl came up once again and grabbed his sleeve, making him notice that she wanted his attention.

"You can see me, correct?" the girl asked as Ichigo nodded before walking off, knowing that Tatsuki had karate lessons to teach at the school. At the moment, she was only teaching Inoue, and only because Tatsuki knew that she wouldn't always be able to help her. After the girl dragged Ichigo to an abandoned location, she let go of him and started to explain why she wanted his help.

"Four boys are trampling all over a flower that was left for me. Can you please stop them for me?" she asked Ichigo as he then nodded once again, and asked for directions. Once she gave him those, he was off running towards the spot. Once he got there, he kicked one of the four goons there and then told the others to get out of his way.

"You suddenly kick Yama-chan down and then you tell US 'out of the ways'!" one of the boys screamed. Ichigo just sighed as he stood there scratching his head. When Ichigo didn't respond, guy got mad and tries to throw a punch at him.

"Say something you little-" He said in mid swing but got cut off when one of Ichigo's feet connected with his face. The guy dropped to the ground with the bow but Ichigo didn't cut him any slack and started to pound on the guys back with rapid kicks.

"Whoa, Toshirin's getting'…….." One of the gang members mutter as they watched Ichigo kick the snot out of the guy.

"This is bad!" Another one said.

"This so messed up……" The third finished. When he said that, Ichigo kicked the back of man named Toshirin's head into the pavement.

"Quit yakkin!" Ichigo yelled as he finished kicking the poor Toshirin into the ground.

"All you bastards," He started. "LOOK AT THAT!" He then pointed to a broken glass vase with some crushed flowers in them lying next to the side walk. Ichigo then got a crazed look in his eye.

"Question 1: What the hell is that?" Ichigo asked the group of skaters. He then stared at the guy in the middle of the group. "You there in the middle!"

The guy in the middle looked confused. "Ah….an offering to a spirit that died here." This earned him one of the infamous kicks from Ichigo.

"Check out the brain's on smelly!" Ichigo yelled. He then turned to look at the other members.

"Question 2: Why would that bottle have fallen over?" Ichigo asked

"Well we were skateboarding and knocked it over……" At this point, the skateboarders were shaking with fear at the rampage that was Ichigo Kurosaki. With a flurry of kicks, Ichigo knocked the rest of the small gang to the ground.

"If I ever catch you guys doing anything like this again," Ichigo growled. "I will make it so people will have to leave tributes for your souls as well!"

Screaming like little girls, the skateboarders ran away with their tails between their legs. With a sigh, Ichigo moved turned around to face the ghost girl.

"After that little act, they shouldn't be back." Ichigo then turned around and headed home again. "I will bring back some more flowers tomorrow." He yelled over his shoulder, making the ghost girl smile slightly.

A little ways away, Tatsuki sighed. She had just finished karate practice and was now heading over to Ichigo's to work on their homework. It was then that she remembered Isshin-san's comment that morning. Her? Ichigo's girlfriend! She just snorted at the idea. The very thought of her and that loud mouth, annoying, clever, hansom, sun kissed orange haired………She immediately shook her head. Maybe it would be a good idea to call off the homework meet tonight….

As Tatsuki was lost in thought, some skateboarders ran passed her, screaming for their lives. Blinking at this, she turned her head and saw Ichigo calmly walking towards her. She could only smirk. It seems Ichigo had scared them for disturbing a ghost friend of his.

'He can be so caring at times……' Tatsuki shook her head again. 'We are just friends, nothing more.'

"Oi! Ichigo!" Tatsuki waved. Looking up, Ichigo saw Tatsuki and waved back.

"Oi, Tatsuki." He responded.

"I didn't know you took this way home."

"I don't normally but there was a ghost I had to help out on the way home." Ichigo then started to walk a head of Tatsuki. "No big deal."

Tatsuki just sighed. "Everything involving ghosts is a no big deal with you isn't it Ichigo?" When she didn't hear a response, She looked up to see that Ichigo was already a fair distance away from her.

"Ichigo-teme! Wait up for me!" Tatsuki yelled, chasing after her orange haired friend.

Ichigo heard her and stopped. Once Tatsuki caught up to him, she bopped him on the head, which had Ichigo rubbing his newly acquired bruise.

"What was that for?"

"For running away instead of answering my question," she replied as he still rubbed his bruise as he glared at her. Tatsuki just ignored it as she kept walking with Ichigo.

"Well, it's true. It's like the skills in karate. When it's new, it's hard to go through the different attack, defenses, and everything, but then when you do it for a couple of years and it just becomes natural. The same applies for my spiritual abilities." Ichigo grinned at Tatsuki's face, before that grin turned into a smirk.

"What, you think I'm at the lower levels like my other friends? I need something to have teachers accept me with this orange mop." Ichigo said pointing towards his hair before noticing Tatsuki with her right eye starting to twitch.

"Ichigo, I will give you five seconds to run for your life before I beat you within an inch of it." Tatsuki said in a cold and malicious voice.

However, Ichigo noticed the same girl that he helped before running away from something, not seeing the hideous behemoth that was chasing her and the behemoth that only saw her, forgot to smell the air around him, for if he did, his nose would smell the strong source of energy pouring out of him, unchecked by a familiar.

However, while this was happening, Tatsuki was getting closer to unleashing her fury on Ichigo. Ichigo then took notice as she was getting closer to five, and knowing that only a simple apology wouldn't save his life so he decided to bargain for it.

"Well, I'll think about it. I'll negotiate with you later Ichigo no baka."

"All right. I think that my father is helping a patient, so if you want to come in now so as to not attract attention from the idiot known as my father." Ichigo said before Tatsuki nodded, remembering the comment from before. Ichigo made sure that his father wasn't there to ambush him, and signaled Tatsuki in before they both went upstairs.

"Ichigo, tell you what, if I get a passing grade on the next math test, I'll forget the scene ever happened. However, if I fail, no amount of begging will save you from my wrath, understood?" Tatsuki said, while Ichigo nodded, thinking of how to help Tatsuki and keeping his life. Time flew by as Ichigo helped Tatsuki with both math and science, Yuzu bringing some dinner up a little after six. By the time they stopped, they noticed that it was late.

"Yara yara……it seems it is too late to walk you home." Ichigo said, placing his pencil down.

Getting up, Tatsuki said, "I better call my folks to tell them what's up." She then left the room. It was only a moment later that she came back and once more the duo was hitting the books again. Before long, the two fell asleep, their heads on top of their books. Unknown to them, a black gi figured stepped into their room, appearing to be searching for something. Unfortunately for this figure, she stepped on Ichigo's head. This lead to a series of events that ended with waking up both Ichigo and Tatsuki from their peaceful slumber.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo yelled, nursing the bruise on his head.

"Who are you talking to Ichigo? I can't see anyone?" Tatsuki said, helping to nurse the bruise on her orange haired friend. Looking over to her, Ichigo instantly knew that this person wasn't normal.

"I am Rukia Kuchiki. I am a shinigami." The figure before them explained. Ichigo only nodded at this.

"And what exactly is a shinigami –" He didn't complete his sentence as he heard an inhuman roar echo through out the room.

"What was that?" Ichigo whispered.

"What was what?" Both Rukia and Tatsuki said at the same time. This was quickly followed by an explosion from downstairs.

"Ichi-nii-san!"

"Yuzu!" Ichigo and Tatsuki both jumped up and when they opened up the door, Yuzu fell forward on top of them.

"Yuzu! What happened to you!" Ichigo said.

"It….came…..nowhere…….Karin………trouble……"She said before passing out. Ichigo quickly passed Yuzu over to Tatsuki as he raced down the stairs.

"Where are you going!" Tatsuki yelled after him.

"Take care of Yuzu for me." He responded as he raced down stairs to find that the kitchen was blown wide open and standing in front of it was a giant fish like beast, Karin struggling in its giant hand.

"What is that thing?" Ichigo stared in awe.

"It's a Hollow." Turning around quickly, he saw it was the spirit named Rukia from earlier.

"A what?"

"Someone help me!" Karin yelled.

"Karin!" Ichigo yelled as he looked around for something to hit the beast. Picking up a folding chair, he charged the beast. With a good smack to the arm, the Hollow dropped Karin as he took a swipe at Ichigo. With quick reflexes, Ichigo ran and caught Karin as Rukia came in with her katana. Slicing the beast in the arm, the Hollow knocked her back as he did Ichigo.

"What is that thing doing here?" Ichigo asked as he placed Karin down out of danger.

"It must be after your souls. Hollows feast on living people's spiritual powers. He must be after you because your spiritual power is so strong." Rukia said as she battled the beast. Unfortunately, the beast got a good swipe in and knocked Rukia into a telephone pole.

"Shinigami!" Ichigo yelled as he rushed over to her side.

Coughing up some blood, she said. "Shit, this one is a little stronger then I though." It was with a mighty roar that the Hollow started to charge the two.

"Crap! It's coming back." Ichigo said.

"You can't beat it as you are now." Rukia said.

"What do you mean?"

"You must become a shinigami." It was then Rukia shifted so her blade was facing Ichigo. "Take my zanpak-to and stab it through your body. I should be able to infuse my shinigami powers into you."

"Are you sure this will work?" Ichigo asked, taking the blade in his hands.

"No I don't but it seems to be the only way to save your family at this moment." Nodding at this, Ichigo took the blade and stabbed it into his body. A blind flash of light appeared and with a mighty cry, the fish like beast had suddenly lost an arm.

"Alright you bastard," Ichigo said, holding a giant zanpak-to over his shoulder. "This is pay back for what you did to my sisters!"

* * *

Off on another building not fair away, two shadowy figures watched the newly made shinigami as he battled his first hollow. One of the figures just yawned.

"Yara yara……" The figure said. "It seems that we have a new shinigami in town." The other figure just grinned.

"Oh he is going to be so much fun to play with!" The other figure said which earned a bop from the former.

"Yara yara…." The first figure said as they took out a cigarette and lit it. "You can be so troublesome when it comes to new fighters." This properly earned a pout from the second figure.

"So what if I want to gauge the strength of this guy? Is that such a crime?" The first figure merely sighed and slump his shoulders.

"Let's just go report back to the boss before it gets to late." In the blink of an eye, the two figures disappeared from sight……

* * *

FireSamurai: zzzz

Dragon and Sword Master: Tala, your water is ice cold, right?

Tala: Yeah, why?

Dragon and Sword Master: My partner over here passed out after having too much sake. As much as I'd like to see his reaction when he wakes up naturally, it's the end of the second chapter and he's still sleeping like the living dead!

Tala: I see what you want me to do. pours water over FireSamurai's head

FireSamurai: wakes up and puts his hands to his head for a while Why doesn't our author powers work on hangovers?

Dragon and Sword Master: I don't think **anything** can cure hangovers except for time itself. I'm not sure though, I only had one drink of sake, while you had the rest of the bottle, of course that's typical for a samurai…

FireSamurai: I resent that.

Dragon and Sword Master: Kidding, I was just kidding. Anyways, please send in reviews.

FireSamurai: Yes please do.


	3. The Morning After

FireSamurai: (nearly faints from shock)

Dragon and Sword Master: (pokes with stick) You alright?

FireSamurai: 1000 hits………(is in shock)

Dragon and Sword Master: Well at least we got a hit here.

FireSamurai: Indeed.

Dragon and Sword Master: Now on to Review responses.

FireSamurai: Santa-Demonica: Thank you for liking the story so much. As for what the difference is going to be……..well there are those two guys lurking in the shadow's right? Lol, seriously, we have something very interesting in plan… Also, thank you for putting that error on the Zanpaktou spelling.

Dragon and Sword Master: Phox-chan, we thank you for the compliment of catching a girl's mind and you're right. We did skip the whole "Ichigo becoming a shinigami" part, but we did that on purpose. The reason being was that it was from Tatsuki's POV and she didn't see it.

FireSamurai: On top of which, I think everyone knows how Ichigo became one so it would seem kinda pointless for us to rewrite it which is why it was not in the story.

Dragon and Sword Master: To All Other Reviewers: Thank you for your support in our story and taking the time to read and review it. Thank you.

FireSamurai: Now that that is out of the way, everyone rejoice! Chapter 3 is here!

Dragon and Sword Master: We do not own Bleach, for if we did, this story wouldn't be a story but the anime!

* * *

**Chapter 3 The Morning After**

"Ugh," Tatsuki said as the bright rays of the sun shown down on her. Rolling around a little bit before blinking her eyes open. Looking around, she saw the clock and noticed they had about two hours to get to school. Grumbling, Tatsuki slowly climbed up to Ichigo's bed and started to slowly nudge him.

"Come on lazy bones," Tatsuki mumbled. "Wake up or we are going to be late." With another nudge, Ichigo's eyes snapped wide open.

"WAHAHAHAHA!" Ichigo yelled as he bent up forward quickly. This led to him hitting his head into Tatsuki, which lead to her falling backwards and him rolling off the bed which lead into a very…………unique position. Tatsuki almost shivered as she felt Ichigo's breath on her neck almost as if she enjoyed it. Never in a million years would she admit that though. Besides, even if she did like Ichigo that way, she was too much of a tomboy to even care about stuff like that. She quickly shook her head as reality came back to her.

"You mind getting up? If your father came in and saw us like this, he'll die slowly for what he'll suggest." She said before Ichigo got up. The blood rose to both of their faces, embarrassed at what just happened.

"This never happened, agreed?" Tatsuki asked as Ichigo quickly nodded his head in agreement, now fully awake and removed his body from a top Tatsuki.

Sighing, Tatsuki quickly got up and headed over to the dresser. When they were younger, they decided that they would always share their dressers when ever either of them stayed over unexpectedly. Opening her side of the dresser, she said, "Since I had to wake your lazy ass up this morning, I get first shower."

"Fine, just don't use up all the hot water." was all that Ichigo said. He knew that if he finished what he was thinking, friend or no friend, he would have to figure out how to stifle the bruise that would come from Tatsuki's fist to his head. He was going to say 'Just don't use all the hot water. Girls take the longest showers, I swear.' but he would like to keep living in this world and not the next.

"What, you need a shower as well as me to wake you up?" Tatsuki asked before heading into the bathroom. Ichigo was waiting for her as he cleaned up his room, just a little. He wanted to be able to get out of his room without getting injured after all. Hearing some hammering going on downstairs, Tatsuki noticed nothing of it as she took her shower. However, at that moment she started to remember pieces of what happened last night.

'_I wish I had his ability_.' She thought to herself as she was finishing up with her shower. After drying herself with a towel, she quickly got dressed and left the door open as she walked out.

"Shower's free!" she said (sang maybe) as Ichigo dashed past her with some clothes. Tatsuki laughed at the scene while trying to recollect her memory about last night.

'_It will come to me eventually_,' She thought as sent went downstairs and to her surprise, a giant hole was in the middle of the side of the Kurosaki house.

"Move please." She heard from behind her. Turning around, she saw a tall man with white hair, the left side of his face covered by it, and his one red eye, a cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth. He wore a white jump suit and hat and was carrying a ladder with some planks.

"Sorry!" Tatsuki said as she jumped out of the way. The man just sighed.

"Women, troublesome." He mumbled as he continued to the giant hole.

"Stop patronizing the customers. They're paying and unless you don't want your share, shut up." A girl said from outside, decked in the same outfit as the man. She had some paint on her uniform and some in her flaming colored hair. Her face had small specs on it, dotting her face like freckles. Her red eyes were the only thing noticeable about her, but Tatsuki assumed that those were just contacts. The white haired man just yawned as he continued on his way towards the hole.

"Umm, what happened?" Tatsuki asked as she saw the two white suited workers walk back and forth, carrying their supplies in and out.

"Truck smashed into-"

"The side of –"

"The building -"

"Last night." The two workers said as the started to work, bringing more and more supplies in.

"Are you sure about that?" She asked as the two nodded quickly.

"That is what has been reported to us." The woman said to which Tatsuki could only nod in agreement. What little she could bring from her memory showed nothing of a truck colliding with Ichigo's house. Of course, it's plausible that it happened, but it seemed too farfetched for Tatsuki to believe. She didn't say anything, since it wasn't her house. Before going to school, she left a note where only Ichigo would see it and left, the note saying she had to meet up with Orihime.

As she walked towards Orihime's, her thoughts traveled to what she saw this morning. The two workers said that a truck ran into the building last night. If that was true, however, wouldn't that have woken up the whole house? She sighed in frustration. Something wasn't adding up here. Also, what happened this morning……immediately a blush appeared on Tatsuki's face.

'_You like him_.' A small voice in the back of Tatsuki's head said.

'_No I don't!_'

'_Then why are you blushing?_'

'_I am not!_'

'_Uh huh. Just like you weren't blushing when he fell on top of you this morning……….._'

'_That was an accident!_''

'_Then why did you enjoy it so much……._'

"I DO NOT LIKE ICHIGO!" Tatsuki yelled, only to find that she was standing in front of Orihime.

"Uh Tatsuki,..." Orihime started to say to get the attention of one of her best friends. Tatsuki blinked and scratched the back of her head in a nervous manner as she noticed Inoue staring at her. Embarrassment crept up again before she told her to forget what she just said.

"Orihime!" Tatsuki said, her voice a little higher then usual. "Ready for school?"

"Of course!" Orihime said as she held up her bag.

"Then let's go!" Tatsuki said and with that, the two headed off to school. Once there, Tatsuki tiredly sat down in her chair. So many thoughts were running through her mind. She would of liked nothing more then to go back to sleep. It was then she noticed that Ichigo's chair was still empty.

'_I'll forgive him this once. He has to deal with his own problems after last night. I'm just glad his father didn't see us in that position._' She thought to herself before classes started for the day.

"Stand. Bow. Sit." Tatsuki heard as their Sensei walked in.

"Alright class," She started. "Time to take roll call." After a few moments of name calling (and telling the Sensei why Ichigo wasn't in, courtesy of Tatsuki), their Sensei said something interesting.

"Alright class," She started. "We will be getting a new transfer student." Tatsuki's ears perked up at this. The Sensei then turned to the door and said, "You can come in now."

'_We are getting a transfer student this early in the year?_' Tatsuki thought as she watched the new student come in. The moment she saw a flick of black hair, alarms started going off in Tatsuki's head.

"Students, this will be your new classmate." Sensei said. "Rukia Kuchiki." The female student bowed.

"It will be an honor to be able to learn with all of you." Rukia said, bowing to the class. Sensei then looked around, trying to find a good spot to place the new student.

"Ah right behind Arisawa and next to Kurosaki." The teacher smiled. Bowing to the teacher, Rukia quickly walked down the aisles as she took her seat behind Tatsuki. Through out the whole lesson, Tatsuki had a prickling sensation on the back of her neck.

"_Why do I have a feeling that today is going to be interesting once Ichigo gets here?"_ She thought to herself before Rukia sat down behind her. The voice in the back of her head was starting to sing that she was jealous, but she ignored it as she wrote down everything that the teacher said so that Ichigo could copy it later whenever he decided to get to school.

Tatsuki turned around and wondered what was taking Ichigo so long. She wouldn't admit it, but she was worried about the orange-haired doofus and the girl behind her wasn't helping her feelings for that matter either. However, she did jar something within her memories.

"_What was that? Something was attacking all of us and then there was blood…blood that came from nowhere."_ She thought to herself as she tried to figure out how this new student could be involved with these memories. She thought about it for a little while and then just left it, in order to think about it later.

"He better be in class soon, otherwise…I don't know what I'll do to him, but he'll regret it" she mumbled to herself as she kept doing her work. She'd have to help Ichigo when and if he got here. Before she realized it, the bell had rung for break. Sighing, she got up as she headed out for some fresh air. Deciding that the roof was the best spot, she headed towards her destination. Once reaching it, she took a deep breath of fresh air. Sighing, she headed towards the railing. It was then that she was struck with another vision. Yelling, lots of yelling. Yuzu…..hurt…..Ichigo…..yelling……something…

"ARRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Tatsuki yelled to the sky. "What are these visions I am seeing?!" Having used all her energy in that yell, she panted as she held onto the roof railing.

"What are they?" She whispered to herself. "What are these images I am seeing?" It was then she noticed down below that Ichigo was talking to Rukia. A smile lit her face as she saw the orange haired boy. That smile soon turned to shock as she saw Rukia punch right at him. Anger clouded her vision as she bolted for the door.

The only thoughts that went through Tatsuki's mind were "_I'm going to kill her_." and "_What the hell did she do to him?"_

By the time that she got to where she saw them, both the new student and Ichigo were gone. Looking around, she couldn't find any trace as to where the two could have gone.

"Damn that Rukia." Tatsuki whispered to herself. "I will get her back for what she did to Ichigo." Sighing, Tatsuki quickly returned back to class, having not full filled her goal. Strangely, when she got back, neither Ichigo nor Rukia were no where to be found and wouldn't be for the rest of the school day…….

* * *

"Gah!" Tatsuki yelled, throwing her hands up in the air. It was late in the evening as the young karate expert was trying to do her homework. Problem was she couldn't concentrate. Even since she saw Rukia punch Ichigo, she couldn't get that image out of her mind. On top of their sudden disappearance………Tatsuki just sighed.

"I will just have to talk to the big doofus tomorrow." Tatsuki sighed.

"Tatsuki!" She heard from downstairs. Moving over to her bedroom door, she yelled. "What is it mom?!"

"I want you to take this beef stew over to Orihime! You know that if we don't give her a good meal every once and a while she will become as thin as a twig!" Tatsuki could only smile at that. Even though Orihime wasn't part of the family, her mother would treat her as if she was one of her own.

"Hai kaa-san! Be down in a moment!" Tatsuki yelled back, getting up from her seat and reaching for her jacket. Moments later, she was now standing in front of Orihime's house, waiting for her friend to answer.

"Yes?" Tatsuki heard as the door opened to reveal her other orange haired friend.

"Tatsuki!" Orihime asked, surprised that her best friend was here. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello Orihime," Tatsuki smiled. "My mom made some extra beef stew and she wanted to give it to you." Orihime could only smile at her friend's kindness.

"Come on in." Orihime said. Moment later, the two were then sitting around Orihime's dinning table.

"Yay!" Orihime said. "Your mom's beef stew is so good!" Orihime smiled as she ate. Tatsuki could only sigh.

"Without us, you always eat ridiculous stuff Orihime." She said. Orihime only pouted at the comment. It was then that Orihime said an interesting comment.

"I wonder what Ichigo and Rukia were doing together today." Tatsuki could only stare at her friend before……….

"WHAT?! Ichigo was with her?!" Tatsuki shouted, her face red, but was it with anger or jealousy, she didn't know.

"Hai," Orihime said, eating more of the beef stew. "But they were just walking together." It was then she noticed the look on Tatsuki's face. "Something wrong?"

"Geez, that Ichigo!" Tatsuki mumbled. "So freaking quick with the new girl…….." It was then she felt some sting at her heart. It was small but it was there. Tatsuki could only blink in confusion.

'_What was that feeling?_' She thought. Her thought process was interrupted however when a loud crash was heard.

"What was that?" Tatsuki said. The crashes then started to get louder and louder and then it suddenly stopped. Shrugging it off but still keeping alert, she turned back to Orihime. "So anyway, want some dessert?" Orihime only nodded. Suddenly, a pink teddy bear fell to the ground, a cut across its face. Orihime quickly crawled over to it, inspecting it.

"Awww," Orihime said, "Why is it ripped?" It was then that another loud crack was heard.

"What was that?" Tatsuki said, standing up behind Orihime. Looking around for the cause, she found none as more loud crashes were heard. It was then that a splat was heard. Looking down, Orihime found her hand was covered in blood.

"What…….is this?" She said. It was then that her eyes dialed and fell backwards lifeless.

"Orihime!" Tatsuki yelled, quickly moving to her friend. It was then that she noticed a black shadow over her. Turning around, she was quickly shoved aside. A gash appeared on her shoulder, her blood dripping from her arm.

'_What the hell?!_' Tatsuki thought, clutching her arm. '_Why am I bleeding?!_' It was then that she was shoved to the side again. Tatsuki started to panic a little.

'_What the hell is happening?_' She thought. '_What is hitting me?'_ She then turned to her side and saw a blurry image of some sort.

"What the hell's going on….." she said before once again being hit to the ground by an invisible opponent. Tatsuki started to panic more. Giant hand prints appeared against her body. It was then that her throat felt like it was being crushed and then it suddenly stopped. She was then pulled away quickly. With everything happening, her mind couldn't take it anymore before her vision started to blur. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was a man in a black hakami……………..and orange hair………

* * *

On the roof near the battle air, the two figures were once again observing the battle. Sighing to himself, the first figure took a seat as his partner just grinned.

"You think he can handle it?" The second asks.

"Who knows." The first said. "It will be troublesome either way." It was then that the figure narrowed his eyes on Tatsuki. "How interesting…….." His partner could only blink. Looking in his line of sight, the partner could only frown.

"What is so interesting about her?"

Sighing and getting up, the first figure said, "Well let's go. Time to report back." And then he was gone. The second only huffed.

"I still dun see what is so interesting about her." And with that, the partner disappeared as well…………

* * *

DASM (My abbreviation): And so yet another chapter comes to a close. Now if you would be so nice to hit the purple button below and review, we'd greatly appreciate it

FireSamurai: Yes we would. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Next we are going to see what happens when Tatsuki gets involved with a certain bird………

DASM: Until next time, see ya.


	4. Of Birds and Giants

FireSamurai: Well, my partner was kind of busy to help with this chapter so this one is all me! (has soda cans thrown at me) hey! That's not funny! (coughs) Anyway, I must say this is the quickest I ever got another chapter up, lol. Now to Review answering!

Tasteslikemiso: I do not believe that my friend or myself will be abandoning this fic anytime soon. We have so many plans…..as for Tatsuki herself………we will just leave that as a surprise that I am sure everyone will like Also, thank you for reviewing.

Kitsune6: Sorry for not a lot of fluff, we will try to work on that. As for adding more Isshin……it depends but we will try our best. Glad you like the fic.

PGW-Chaos: Glad you like the chapter. As to why Tatsuki did not find Ichigo's body is because if you remember from the manga/anime, the hollow attacked Ichigo at his house first. Hence, he left his body at his house before he went to save Orihime and Tatsuki. And that is why Tatsuki did not find his body. As for when Kon shows up……..that we will keep secret as well.

All other reviewers: Thank you for taking the time to review our story and hope you will continue to read and review our story.

FireSamurai: Now on with chapter4!

Disclaimer: As we have said, we do not own Bleach or any character relating to or dealing with it.

* * *

**Chapter 4 Of Birds and Giants**

Tatsuki sighed as she continued to walk her way over to Orihime's from karate practice, the sun slowly setting behind her. It has been two weeks since the incident at Orihime's house. Since then she could not get what had happen out of her mind. She remembered everything. That invisible blur being a giant red snake like beast with the white mask……..Ichigo in those weird black robes wielding that massive sword………..She remembered it all. It also explained some of the bits and pieces that she was remembering from that night she stayed over. She guessed that one of those monsters had attack Ichigo's house. The question is though, why? Why did that massive beast attack Ichigo's house? Also, what does Ichigo have to do with them? And more importantly, why did this new student, Rukia Kuchiki, trigger these memories? Tatsuki just sighed once more. Thinking these things just made her head hurt.

"Oi." Tatsuki heard. Turning around, she saw some people she had not expected. There standing before her was the white haired man and his red haired partner that helped repair Ichigo's house from before.

"You!" Tatsuki screamed.

"Us?" The white haired man responded.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. The red head just snorted.

"If it is any of your business, we were called to do some work here." The red head responded. "Why we are taking suck a ridiculous call I have no idea." She mumbled. Tatsuki only raised an eyebrow at this.

"What was the call you two got?" She asked.

"Apparently," The white haired man started, taking his cigarette out and blowing some smoke down towards the ground. "A Sumo champion came to this young lady's apartment two weeks ago and blew a hole in one of her walls with a gun." He then placed the cigarette back into his mouth. Tatsuki nodded at this.

"Yes, I remember Orihime telling us something like that at school." Tatsuki added.

"Regardless," The white haired man said again. "It is still troublesome."

"Anyway," The Redhead said, "We better get going. We already put this job off for two weeks. Any later and the person won't pay us!" She then grabbed her white haired partner by the ear and started to drag him off. The white haired man only sighed at this.

"Yara yara……why do things end up being troublesome?" He said as the redhead dragged him off. Tatsuki could only sweatdrop at the scene.

'Maybe I won't go over to Inoue's after all.' She thought. It was then at that moment that she heard a small ringing sound. Looking around in her pockets, she quickly found her cell phone.

"Mushi mushi, Tatsuki speaking."

"Tatsuki! This is Ichigo!"

"Ichigo?" She responded. "What's up?"

"There was a major car accident near us!" Tatsuki almost froze when she heard that.

"There was?!" She practically yelled into the phone. "Were any of you hurt?" Though she won't admit this, she did really did care for the big doofus and his little sisters.

"No no, we are all fine." He responded. Tatsuki sighed in relief. At they weren't hurt. "But we are under handed. We could really use your help right now!" Tatsuki nodded.

"I am on my way!" She said and closed the phone shut. Without hesitation, she turned on her heels and started to rush the other way. It wasn't common that Tatsuki was asked to help at the small clinic but she knew that when she was asked, it was important or a crisis. Quickly rushing over, she came upon the gruesome sight. At least countess cars were piled up on top of each other, some crushed while others were on fire. Moans of people barely hanging on as blood dripped from their bodies from their wounds. The sight was just to horrifying for words to explain. Tatsuki almost felt sick to her stomach when she saw the sight which was a hard thing to do for her. It was then she noticed Yuzu and Karin running in and out of the small clinic with first aid kits.

"Yuzu! Karin!" Tatsuki yelled as she ran up to them.

"Tatsuki!" Yuzu smiled and sighed in relief at some more help. "Thank god you are here." She quickly handed over a first aid kit. "Take this and see if you can help anyone." Nodding, Tatsuki quickly went out to find any survivors. Quickly looking over the wreckage, all Tatsuki saw was bodies of the once living. It was then that she suddenly heard a low moan. Locating the sound, her eyes widen in shock.

"Holy crap!" Tatsuki said. Before her laid Chad, bruises covering his body, a giant mark bleeding on his back. She quickly rushed over to his side.

"Chad!" She yelled. "Can you hear me Chad?" her only answer was a low moan coming from said person.

"Hang on Chad," Tatsuki said again. "I will get some help." She then quickly ran over to the clinic, slamming the door open.

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled. In an instant, the orange haired boy appear before her.

"What is the problem Tatsuki?" Ichigo ask, his face having a serious (well more then serious) look to it.

"It's Chad! I found him in the car accident." Tatsuki said. The moment he heard Chad, Ichigo bolted out of the clinic to find his giant friend. Looking around quickly, Ichigo found the bronze giant.

"Chad!" Ichigo was at his side in an instant, trying to lift the giant man.

"Damn Chad, I never thought you were this heavy." Ichigo mumbled, trying to walk with the giant man on his shoulders. Ichigo then noticed the bird that Chad had showed them earlier. He wonders if the bird had something to do with this. Earlier, when Chad showed him at school, both Rukia and himself had sensed that something was wrong with the bird. Rukia said it was a lonely soul that was trapped inside the bird but Ichigo thought otherwise. Trying to keep Chad on his shoulders, he slowly tried to pick up the bird.

"Ichigo!" Looking forward, Ichigo saw Tatsuki running towards them. He sighed in relief when Tatsuki helped him trying to move Chad. Nodding to each other, they quickly got Chad inside and over to a hospital bed, the bird being placed next to his bed side.

"Dad!" Ichigo yelled. "We got an injured man here!" A moment later, Isshin was there, examining the giant of a man.

"Hmmmmm," He said, looking at the giant bleeding claw mark on Chad's back. "This is a very serious wound. You should stay here and rest the night."

"That's good," Chad said, putting his shirt back on. "I will be fine." He then tried to get up but then fell forward.

"Chad!" Ichigo and Tatsuki yelled, diving forward to catch the giant. They both sighed as they both caught him in time. They then took him and laid him back on the bed.

"It seems you aren't going anywhere Chad." Ichigo said, dusting himself off. After some more body retrievals, everything started to quiet down. Resting on the couch, both Ichigo and Tatsuki sighed.

"Well that was an interesting way to spend the night." Tatsuki laughed slightly. Ichigo could only nod in agreement. Tatsuki then turned to look at him.

"You think Chad will be ok?" Though she didn't know Chad as well as the other guys, she respected him for helping Ichigo out where she could not and also for being Ichigo's friend. Ichigo only sighed in response.

"I am sure he will be fine." Ichigo said. "I have known Chad for a while now and if I have learned anything about him, it is that he can take a hit, no matter how hard it is." Ichigo then started to chuckle slightly. "He is like a human brick wall." Tatsuki could only chuckle too.

"Yeah he is a hard one to knock down eh?" She then got up and stretched. "I better start getting home. My partners will probably start getting worried now." With a nod, Ichigo too go up and walked Tatsuki to the door, he waved by as he saw his childhood friend walk off to her destination……

* * *

It was the morning after when all the chaos started. Tatsuki was resting peacefully in her bed, exhausted from helping out yesterday. It was then that a high pitch ringing sound was heard. Grumbling slightly, Tatsuki reached her hand out and searched around for the cause of the noise. Getting the object of disturbance, she quickly flipped open her cell phone.

"Mushi mushi." Tatsuki mumbled eyes half closed.

"Tatsuki!" Tatsuki's eyes widen.

"Ichigo? What's up?" She asked, most of her sleepiness gone.

"It's Chad." He responded. "He ran away from the clinic and his wound isn't healed yet." He explained.

"What?!" Tatsuki yelled now fully awake. "Why the hell did he do that?!"

"I don't know but we need help searching for him."

"Of course." At this Tatsuki was then moving around the room, picking up close to wear.

"Rukia is looking for him as well. I would be helping too but something happen to Karin so I am bringing her back to the clinic." Ichigo explained, starting to sound out of breath.

"Ok, I am on my way." Tatsuki said and quickly hung up. She then rushed down the stairs, placed her shoes on and was out the door in an instant. Running down some streets, she quickly thought where Chad would go.

'_If only I had a sign……._' She thought to herself. The heavenly beings must have heard her for the next intersection she came to, Chad came rushing by her. Tatsuki could only blink.

'_That was fast……_' Tatsuki thought as she quickly followed Chad to a odd scene. The new student Rukia was being held against a brick wall by a giant green bat thing with brown claws…….that were oddly in the same of the wound on Chad's back. Before anything could happen, Chad rushed forward and punched the massive beast. To which both Tatsuki and Rukia were surprised.

'_Could Chad be able to see these beasts as well?' _ They both thought. This thought was soon squashed when they heard Chad say, "Hey, I hit something." To which they both sweat dropped. It was then that the giant green bat thing got up, wiping his mouth where Chad had hit him.

"That was just a lucky punch," He said. "He actually scared me for a moment. I thought he could see me." He said but was soon silenced when Chad's fist met with his face again. Both Rukia and Tatsuki just stared in awe at Chad's fearlessness.

"Damn you!" The giant bat yelled. He then spread his wings and took the sky. Tatsuki's eyes dialed in fear.

"Chad you got to get out of the way!" She yelled. "He is in the air!" He quickly turned around to see Tatsuki standing there.

"You can see this thing like Rukia can Tatsuki?" Chad asked.

"No time for that now! Just move!" Tatsuki yelled. Chad then moved over to a near by phone pole.

"Where is he exactly?" Chad asked. The two girls just stared at him in confusion. Chad then wrapped his arms around the giant pole and broke it.

"Just help me get a beat on him." He said.

"He is right in front of you!" Tatsuki and Rukia yelled at the same time. With a mighty yell, Chad brought the giant pole down on the giant beast.

"Got him!" Rukia said, quickly moving over to the hollow, Tatsuki not far behind.

"You are through now hollow. Another Shinigami will be here to finish you off shortly." Rukia said. Tatsuki paid special attention to what Rukia said.

'_So that beast is a hollow…….but what is it exactly? And what is this shinigami that is supposed to take care of it?_' She thought. It was then that Tatsuki noticed that the hollow was laughing. She quickly walked up to his face and kicked it in nice and hard.

"What the hell are you laughing at you bastard?" Tatsuki asked. This made the hollow laugh even more.

"Lazy Shinigami….." He started. "It is no wonder you always get beaten and humiliated every time you battle us." It was then a feeling of dread fell over the three. From behind them jumped little green monsters, ready to pounce on them.

"Oh holy one that sees all yet has no eyes, thy courage is thy sword and thy will is thy shield. Charge forth to protect thy comrades with out fear!" A voice yelled out from nowhere. It was then that a man in black robes similar to shinigami robes but had no sleeves appeared in front of them, a gray hood covering his head. On the left side of his waist was a normal zanpaktou while on the right of his waist was a bokken. In his hand was the white bird that Chad was carrying around with him.

"Art of Purification 26: Mirror Barrier!" He finished. It was then that a white barrier covered the four as the green imp like things pounced on more. Oddly though, for each one that pounced on the barrier, a small beam of light shot out and destroyed another one. When the barrage of imps stopped, he dropped the barrier. He then turned around and walked towards the bat like hollow.

"Who the hell are you?! What right do you have in meddling with my fun?" The hollow asked. The unknown shinigami just let out a small sigh.

"Normally I don't interfere with other shinigami's work," He then drew his zanpaktou. "But what you did was unforgivable in this life or the next." The unknown shinigami then released some of his reitsu. A sudden pressure appeared on everyone as they tried to breath.

'_My god….._' Rukia thought. '_Who is this man? Where is all this power coming from? He could probably match even nii-sama….._'

'_Is this what a shinigami is?_' Tatsuki thought. '_so much power…he seems scarier then even a hollow does…….._'

To say the least, the hollow was scared out of his wits. With each step the unknown shinigami took towards him, he could feel even more of his power.

"There is no way in hell you are going to get me shinigami!" He said before trying to take off to the sky. Unfortunately for him, two daggers shot out of nowhere and pierced through his wings. With a yell of pain, the hollow was quickly grounded once more. The shinigami walked till he was face to face with hollow.

"I read your report Shrieker." He said. "You killed innocent people while human but you did something even worse then that," he then pointed the tip of his blade towards the bird. "You tortured an innocent soul by telling him you could bring his mother back!" Three gasps could be heard behind the shinigami. The Shinigami then took his blade and raised it above his head, ready to strike the hollow down.

"For this I can not forgive you." With a quick slash, the shinigami brought the blade down, cutting through the hollow. With a screeching wail, Shrieker yelled as the blood red gates of hell opened up behind him and dragged him in. Sheathing the blade, he picked up the two daggers as he walked back to the group. He then bowed to them.

"Sorry for interfering but I can not stand by and watch while bastards like him are free." He then turned to leave.

"Also," He said, turning back to look at them. "Tell that Kurosaki kid he is doing a good job." He then looked forward. "We will be watching him." He then disappeared.

"Wait! Who are you?!" Rukia yelled but got response. Rukia only sighed in defeat. His reitsu was powerful and yet, it felt so familiar…….

"Well nothing we can do now." Tatsuki said. "Might as well go back to Ichigo's." The other two nodded in agreement as they made their way back……

* * *

It was the morning after the bird accident as Tatsuki took a seat at her desk. After what happened yesterday, Ichigo explained everything. Who Rukia was, what those hollows are, everything. To say she was not hurt would not be incorrect. How could Ichigo keep something as big as that from her? Were they not best friends? Tatsuki only sighed at this.

'_I guess he only did it to protect me._' Tatsuki smiled slightly at that. "The big doofus..." She mumbled. It was then that the morning bell rang, signaling to start their morning ritual of "Stand, Bow, Sit," as their sensei walked in.

"Alright class! I have some news for you." Sensei said. "It appears that Rukia won't be the only new student joining us this year. Apparently, two new transfer students are joining us today." Murmurs were heard throughout the classroom. The sensei then turned to the door and said, "You may come in now." The door opened and in walked two people, one male and one female. The male was about 5'8 with white hair and one red eye, his left eye being covered by a giant grey eye patch that covered the left side of his face, the band sticking around his forehead. He wore the normal school uniform of white button up shirt and black pants though it could be seen that there were some cigarettes hanging out of his back pocket. He seemed to have a bored look on his face. The female was shorter in stature, standing at about 5'6, having blazing red hair with the same color eyes. She too wore the standard school uniform with a grey top and skirt. She had a disgruntle look on her face as if she didn't want to be here.

"Class, welcome our two new students. This is Areku Tenjin." She said pointing to the male. He just yawned and said, "Pleas just call me Ark."

"And this is Nina Aisukaki." The female just bowed, not saying a word. All the while, Tatsuki had her mouth open in shock as she saw the repairmen she knew standing before the class as if it were nothing. Tatsuki's last thoughts before the school day became normal again was that it was going to get very interesting around here. Either that or a long school year………

* * *

FireSamurai: And there you have chapter 4.

DASM: (walks in) Hey, what did I miss?

FireSamurai: Nothing, I just did the whole chapter.

DASM: Ah I see

FireSamurai: (Throws something at DASM) Lazy Bum…..

DASM: (Dodges) I've been busy with my own stuff, alright? I'm currently working on a Christmas surprise fic for a friend of mine. In addition to that, I now work and have two final exams coming up.

FireSamurai: (blinks) that sucks.

DASM: Yeah it does. (coughs) Anyway, please press the little button at the bottom of the page and send us a nice little review.

FireSamurai: Would be most appreciated.


	5. Ritual of Family

FireSamurai: Before we start off, I would like to state that the next few lines are the view of my partner and NOT my views on the subject that he will be discussing, thank you.

Dragon and Sword Master: It looks like I have to do chapter five by myself as punishment for not being here last time. I'll accept it but I'm not going to like it. However, before I get into the chapter, I have one flame/criticism that I want to address and it is towards Kitsune6.

Nina: Calm down Jeff. I have to deal with one annoyance enough.

Dragon and Sword Master: I'm not the only one you're going to have to worry about later on…

Nina: What?

Dragon and Sword Master: I'm not going to tell. Anyways, we have a few qualms to go over with you Kitsune6.

First off: narration. If you are willing to look at this story, take some time out and look at his Digimon stories, where his narration is off the charts. Since this story is retelling the anime episodes with just a few differences here and there; we don't think that narration should be a big problem. In addition, I had a lot to do in real life so FireSamurai took the initiative to write that chapter by himself, so of course that chapter was going to be different.

Part Two: We know that most novels have enhancing words such as adverbs and adjectives. However, we are unlike other authors and we aren't going to have a lot to describe since of the reason above. In addition, we take direct insult to the "A bit of polish could easily take this from a 6 to an 8. )" We do not want nor need a rating for our fanfiction. I hope you do not do a rating again, thank you.

To Other reviewers: Thank you for your support in this story.

Disclaimer: We do not own Bleach for if we did, this would be the actual story instead!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Ritual of Family**

"Tatsuki, do you have to follow me all the time?" Ichigo asked as he destroyed another Hollow. It was late one school night as Ichigo was out doing his shinigami job. Since the incident a month ago with Chad and the bird happen, Tatsuki had been keeping a close eye on Ichigo, especially when he went out to do battle with the hollows. She was mad at him at first but she soon cooled off and forgave him. Tonight, he had just finished off a hollow as Rukia said that would be the last one for the night and went home ahead of him.

"Why do you ask? Am I starting to be a bother?" She asked as he nodded. However, before she could get angry, he reasoned out why.

"You don't have the ability to kill them and they know that. While you can hurt them, they will still keep coming at you. Not only are you just a human, but you're also one of the few people I call friends…and I can't, no won't let anything happen to you if I can help it." He said in one of his more sentiment moments as he looked away. Unfortunately, this only angered the dragon more.

"Who are you trying to protect: me or your ego?" She asked. Ichigo said nothing as he returned to his body and the two of them started to walk towards his house.

"Listen Tatsuki, can I ask you of something?" He asked after a moment, totally serious for once in his life.

"What and why?"

"The day after tomorrow, I'm going to play hooky and I need a good excuse." He said before noticing that they had already gotten to his house. Saying good bye to Tatsuki, he sighing at what his father was going to suggest as he went inside.

Tatsuki was fuming. She hated it when Ichigo skipped school. Although he never asked her to make up an excuse for him before and it irked her to no end. She was just going to have to think about it later. She thought to herself as she was heading home. Usually Ichigo took her home first, just as a precaution or so he said, but he just wanted to make sure that no one else would get hurt.

"_It's as if he's trying to make up for losing his mom. Even after all this time, he still blames himself for her death……' _ She frowned at the thought_. 'Wait a second..." _ She thought before bumping into someone and interrupting her train of thought.

"Hey there sweetie…" some drunk started to say before Tatsuki kicked him, hard. He went back into the wall and slumped down unconscious. Tatsuki didn't do anymore musing and kept her senses open; making sure that no one tried anything like that again. She made it home and went up to start on some homework, after saying hello to her mother of course.

Ichigo, on the other hand, didn't have the same luxury that Tatsuki had. The moment his body entered the dining room, Karin and Yuzu were sitting around the table. For once in his life, Isshin was standing around them as well.

"About time you got back!" He nearly shouted to him as his son just waved him off. He was glad that he never had to answer the question of how his day was. Of course, it angered him a little back then, but now that he had his Shinigami business; he was glad.

"Sorry, I had something to attend to after school." He said, while his father looked at him suggestively.

"It wasn't with Tatsuki dad. Get your mind out of the gutter for once and explain what's going on." Ichigo asked after being annoyed by his dad yet again.

"We were discussing on jobs for tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, tomorrow is _that_ day."

"Hey, since Tatsuki is going to be part of the family eventually, why not bring her along?" Isshin asked before receiving a kick to his head, courtesy of Ichigo.

"How many times do I have to tell you? She isn't my girlfriend!" He yelled as his father was still lying on the floor.

"Father had a good idea for once? The Apocalypse is about to happen, isn't it?" Karin asked after that and Ichigo smirked at that.

"_Actually, maybe she could come along…"_ Ichigo thought to himself as he headed towards his room. As he entered, he saw Rukia lying down on the floor reading a book. She just looked up at him in wonder. Ichigo just shook his head before getting dressed and getting into bed for the next day……

Rukia sighed as she got up.

'_Another day in this body, another day closer to…..'_ She shook her head to end her that thought. Getting dressed, she opened the closet to find a usual site. There stood Ichigo, standing at the window looking down at his watch. For a moment she started to worry for the young mortal's mental health. Fighting hollows for a good month and a half could not be good for one's mind, especially if you knew where they came from.

"Oi Ichigo!" She said. "What's wrong?" This seemed to cause Ichigo to come out of his state of mind.

"Nothing," He said. Frowning, she jumped down and headed to school before him.

* * *

_At School……._

"Hey Tatsuki!" Hearing her name, Tatsuki looked up from her desk as she saw one of her classmates coming towards her. "You're taking the art elective too, right?"

"Yeah," Tatsuki nodded.

"Did you do the assignment: "The Future Me"?" She asked, a frown on her face.

"I did," Tatsuki responded, "But why?" The classmate sighed in relief.

"Can I see yours? I don't think mine's any good." She asked.

"Sure," Tatsuki nodded, reaching into her bag to take out the picture. She grinned when she found it, placing it out for all to see.

"Wow, you're good!" The class mate said, shocked at how good Tatsuki's picture was. Tatsuki just smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"One day," She started. "I'm gonna become the female Vale Tudo champion."

"You're lucky." Her classmate said, handing the picture back. "I can't show mine, it's too bad." She then turned to Orihime who was sitting near Tatsuki.

"What about yours, Orihime?" She asked. "What did you draw?"

"Wonderful of you to ask." Orihime smiled, reaching into her bag to find the picture. "I'm secretly quite proud of it." However, when they saw the picture, Tatsuki and their classmate could only sweatdrop as Orihime showed her as a robot in the future.

"You wanna get detention again?!" Tatsuki yelled, scarred at the picture that Orihime showed. Before Orihime could respond, she saw Ichigo walk in behind Tatsuki.

"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime said with a smile.

"Oh, morning, Inoue." He said, using a forced smile. When he said that, both Orihime and Tatsuki frowned, more so on Orihime's part then Tatsuki's.

"What's that?" Their classmate said. "What just happened? Kurosaki-kun's in **such** a good mood." She then turned to Orihime. "Right Orihime?" When she didn't hear a response, she called to Orihime again. Orihime nodded in response.

"But…." Orihime started. It was then something clicked into Tatsuki's mind. Looking down at her watch, she noticed the date.

'_I should have noticed before…..'_ Tatsuki berated herself. '_That was why he asked me to come up with an excuse yesterday……' _She then turned to Orihime to explain.

"It's not that he's in a good mood." Tatsuki started. She then sighed. "He only makes that face when he's completely tense." Tatsuki then got up and started to leave.

"Tatsuki-chan." Orihime said.

"It's okay." She said. "I know the reason." Tatsuki then took a breath. "Tomorrow's the day he takes off from school." Looking up and seeing Tatsuki leave, Ichigo figure this would be his chance. Saying he had to use the bathroom to the other guys, he went off on his pursuit to find Tatsuki.

"Oi, Tatsuki!" Turning around at the sound of her name, Tatsuki came face to face with her orange haired friend.

"Ichigo?" She asked back. Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, Ichigo said, "Yo."

"Yo?" Tatsuki asked back, her eyebrow raised. Ichigo just stared at Tatsuki, trying to find the right words to say.

"Listen…" He started.

"Yeah?"

"You know what tomorrow is right?" To this he got a nod. "Well I was wondering….." He mumbled the last part. Tatsuki's eyebrow rose even more.

"What was that?"

"Iaskedifyouwantedtocomewithustomorrowtoourmother'sgrave." He said really quickly, looking away with, if Tatsuki's eyes didn't deceive her, a small blush. It took Tatsuki a moment before she realized what Ichigo asked.

'_He wants me to come with him to visit his mother's grave…..' _ Tatsuki's eyes widen at the realization. Ichigo NEVER asks anyone to come with them when they visit his mother's grave. For him to ask such a thing…….

"Oi," Ichigo said, waving his hand in front of her face. "Tatsuki, you there? Did you here what I said?" Blinking, she slapped his hand away and huffed as she turned around.

"Of course I heard what you said baka." She huffed, still not looking at him. A moment of silence passed between the two.

"So……?" Ichigo said, looking down. He then saw Tatsuki starting to walk away. A frown appeared on his face.

'_I knew asking was a bad idea…._' Ichigo thought as he turned away.

"Oi baka!" He heard from behind him. He turned around to see Tatsuki standing there grinning at him. "I will be at your house at 6 am. You better be up or else." She said. Ichigo could only help but grin too.

"Yeah, with alarm clocks like you, I am pretty sure I will be up in time." Ichigo said, grinning as he walked back to class. Tatsuki could only help but smile as she saw her orange haired friend's back as they both walked to their respective classes………..

* * *

_After School…_

Ichigo brought some more flowers for the girl and placed them in the container that she frequently hung around. It was something simple and normal…for him at least. Heading back towards the house, he heard another spirit tell him that she had stop coming for a while. This worried Ichigo a little, especially since his little friend had stop coming to their special spot.

"_Was she eaten by a Hollow? I certainly hope not. And if she was eaten by one of those bastards, I am at fault, since I should have performed a soul burial for her, even if it would have made me lonely."_ He thought to himself as he headed home, packing what was necessary for the trip, which wasn't much.

Rukia was talking about how fun that talk was from last night. He didn't quite understand what she was trying to say, but he shrugged it off anyways, and then asked a question that Rukia answered in the negative, and strongly at that: If it was possible for him to take a day off from his Shinigami business.

"You've been acting really weird ever since this morn-" She started to say before Ichigo cut her off.

"It's the anniversary. Tomorrow's the day my mom died. No, that's wrong. To be precise, it's not the day she died. It's the day she was killed." He said in a serious tone, turning around to look at Rukia while saying this. Rukia just looked on in shock, now knowing why he wanted tomorrow off.

As Ichigo got ready for bed, he pulled back the sheet and got onto the bed before pulling the covers back on, putting a towel that he took from the shower earlier onto his eyes to block out the darkness, or to try and block the nightmares that always came with tomorrow. (A/N: The towel was probably damp or dry by now.)

The memory of what happened always found a way to surface through his subconscious on this day, always ready to torment him anew at the fact that it was his fault for his mother's death…………

"_Why am I going again?"_ She asked herself as her conscious replied with an answer, _"It's because you like him and that he asked. This is something important for him and to be asking you on it…"_ She tried ignoring her conscious, knowing that they were only very good friends, but her other persona was wondering if it would ever become more than just that. She squashed that thought of her conscious quickly, and this was only just the first few minutes before they arrived at the gravesite that held Masaki Kurosaki's remains. Of course her mother wasn't truly happy about her skipping school, but Tatsuki had won out in the end, telling her that she could go to school any day, but to go with Ichigo was a treasure, something that he had shared with no one else besides his family. She had stayed behind to talk with Ichigo and jumped towards the left as her instincts told her to move. Seconds later, Isshin was sailing down the hill, courtesy of Karin herself. She smiled a little at this, still thinking that it was a little strange.

"Today's too friggin' hot for June" Ichigo mumbled to himself as he looked up the hill before remembering how different it was on the day of his mother's murder.

Tatsuki noticed that look and pitied him, just for a second though.

"_I wonder what Ichigo would be like if his mother was still alive."_ She thought to himself before hearing Karin saying that someone was already there.

Tatsuki looked and saw what looked like Rukia. Quickly looking over at Ichigo with a dark look in her eye, she noticed that he was starting to panic as Rukia started waving at the group.

"We don't know her." was the first thing to come out of Ichigo's mouth as he stood there flustered.

Tatsuki played along, not wanting to blow Ichigo's secret.

When Karin said that she remembered her from somewhere, Ichigo quickly remembered that it was a classmate of theirs and told the girls to go to show Tatsuki where the grave was.

She didn't buy it that they were just going to talk and told the girls to go on without her. If Ichigo was going to do something and try to get away without her knowing it…well let's just say the result wouldn't be pretty.

Once Ichigo and Rukia got far away enough from his sisters, and not knowing about Tatsuki, Ichigo laid it into Rukia.

"Why the hell are you following me?" He shouted at her.

"Baka. If I'm not around you and a Hollow attacks, how will you transform? An even better question, how are you going to save your friend and family?" She asked calmly and stoically.

"That doesn't mean –" Ichigo started but sighed in frustration. "I mean, if you're gonna follow me, do it more secretly."

"Sorry about that." Rukia said softly, almost with some feeling of regret. "I didn't realize…." Ichigo's frown almost deepen when he heard that.

"Why're you angry?" Ichigo asked, almost scared at the shorter girl.

"I am not angry." Rukia then looked down at the ground, contemplating her next words carefully. "You said….she was killed." Ichigo's, as well as the hidden Tatsuki's, eyes widened at who Rukia was referring too when she said 'she'. Rukia then turned her head to look at Ichigo directly in the eye. "Your mother……." Ichigo shifted slightly in discomfort.

"I didn't say that." Ichigo defended himself.

"Who killed her?" Rukia asked, showing no emotion on her face.

"I didn't say that." Ichigo repeated. "Forget about it." Rukia was silent for a moment before continuing.

"You said you could see ghosts for as long as you can remember, right?" To this Ichigo nodded. "Then," Rukia paused for a moment. "Tell me one thing."

Taking a breath, she asked. "Was the one who killed your mother….." she paused a moment, trying to figure out the best wording. "a……Hollow?" Ichigo's eyes widen as well as Tatsuki's.

"There is that possibility." Rukia said. "If your spirit ability was high enough that you could see spirits for as long as you can remember…." She paused a moment to gather her thoughts. "A Hollow was after you could have killed your mother by mistake."

At this point, Tatsuki was shaking in anger. How……how could this……this……..this bitch ever suggest something like that? What gave her the right to open up the wound that took her so hard to close? And now she stood before Ichigo, suggesting something that was almost taboo with the Kurosaki family like she has known him all his life. Before Tatsuki could even move however, Ichigo spoke.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS!" Ichigo yelled. "Gimme a break. According to you, every damn thing is the work of Hollows….." His fist clenched in anger.

"It's already nothing to joke about, but then you theorize that's the reason…" Ichigo ranted. Then he looked her straight in the eye. "I've never heard more bullshit in my life." Rukia couldn't help but gasp. Ichigo then sighed as he moved to walk passed Rukia.

"Sorry your guess was wrong." A now calmer Ichigo spoke. "It was no hollow or nothin'." Ichigo then sighed.

"The one who killed my mom……was me." Rukia turned and stared at the young Kurosaki as he ran away, her mouth gaping.

"Hey Ichigo!" she tried to yell after him but it just fell on death ears. It was then she heard some rustling of leaves from behind her. Turning around, she saw Tatsuki standing there, her bangs covering her face.

"Tatsuki?" Rukia asked. Tatsuki didn't reply as she just walked towards the former shinigami.

"Is something wrong Tatsuki?" Rukia asked, confused at her friend's behavior. Without warning, Tatsuki's hand came up and slapped Rukia across her cheek. So shocked was the smaller girl that she almost lost her balance.

"How dare you…" Tatsuki spoke in a low and almost deadly voice. Rukia could only blink in confusion. Receiving no answer, Tatsuki spoke.

"How dare you say such a thing." Tatsuki continued. She then picked Rukia up by her shirt and slammed her against the tree. Shinigami or not, Tatsuki won't let anyone get away with hurting Ichigo.

"How could you say such a thing to him!?" She practically yelled at her. "Were you there to see it happen!? Were you there to see him broken!? Were you there to see him cry!? Were you there to comfort him while he poured his heart out!?" An enraged Tatsuki shouted. "You weren't there at all!" She then threw Rukia to the ground, to annoyed and angry to look at the now scared shinigami. A moment of silence passed through the two girls before Tatsuki spoke.

"Rukia," The smaller girl looked up at the black haired dragon. "If you ever say something like that to Ichigo again…." She then turned around. "I swear I will make you pay, shinigami or not." With those final words, the young dragon walked back to the graveyard, leaving a distressed shinigami in her wake…….

* * *

Karin smiled sadly as she looked at her mother's grave, Yuzu kneeling beside her. Though she would never admit it, she really did miss their mother. She was the center of their worlds and then just one day she was gone. Sighing to herself, she said some prays to help their mother rest in peace. She then turned to Yuzu noticing she was crying as usual during this day. She sighed once more.

"Really, quit crying year after year." Karin said as she kneeled down next to her twin. "We turn eleven this year. That's grown up already."

"Yeah," Yuzu said, sniffling a little. "I get it. I get it, but…" Yuzu tried to say the next words but only tears came.

"See…. You don't get it." Karin sighed.

"Hey there," Turning around, Karin saw a white haired man standing behind them with a red headed girl. Karin quickly moved in front of Yuzu.

"What do you want?" Karin said, ready to fight. The white haired man sighed and reached into his pocket for something. Karin tensed slightly as well as Yuzu. It was only a moment later that the white haired man pulled out a hanky. Moving closer, he kneeled down in front of Yuzu.

"May I?" He asked. Yuzu only nodded. With a smile, the white haired man took the hanky and wiped the tearstains away off her cheeks. Yuzu couldn't help but blush at the older man's treatment.

"There," The white haired man said, still smiling. "A face as pretty as yours shouldn't be stained with tears." To this statement, Yuzu blushed even more as she stuttered a thank you. Karin noticed that the red head seemed to be in a huff at the white haired man's treatment.

Standing up now, the White haired man said, "So, what are you two doing here all by yourselves? The graveyard can be pretty dangerous with out a adult around."

"We aren't here alone." Karin said, finding the man to be oddly friendly. "Our Otou-san is talking with the priest and our brother Ichigo had to go take care of an old friend of that we met up on our way here. I think Tatsuki went to look for him." It was at that moment that Ichigo decided to step into the graveyard.

"Oi!" Ichigo said, spotting his sisters and running up to them. "Karin, Yuzu!" When he got up to them, he was in shock.

"Ark? Nina?" Ichigo said, staring at his new classmates. "What are you two doing here?" Ark merely gave Ichigo the peace sign.

"Just decided to come and visit some old relatives that were long since deceased." Ark said with a smile as he placed a hand on Yuzu's head. "We saw these youngsters here and thought they were lost or something." He then looked to Nina and nodded. "Let's go." With a nod, both Ark and Nina started to walk past Ichigo. As Ark started to walk past Ichigo, he started to speak in a low voice.

"I see that your two female companions haven't turned up yet Kurosaki." Ark said as he turned his head to give Ichigo a small smile. "I hope they have not done anything to disturb the spirits here." He then faced forward again. "After all, you reap what you sow eh?" With that said, Ark and Nina continued on their way out of the graveyard, leaving a wide eyed Ichigo and two confused girls.

"What did he mean Ichi-nii-san?" Karin asked, confused at the white haired boys action. Ichigo quickly shook his head as he looked at his two younger sisters.

"Karin, Yuzu, find Dad and get to safety!" Ichigo yelled before running out of the graveyard once more………

* * *

Tatsuki was still mad at Rukia as they were both walking towards the gravesite, Tatsuki walking faster so that she didn't "accidentally" hurt Rukia.

"She may be his boss but she has no business saying that. Hell, she's lucky that I didn't kill her for those comments towards Ichigo."

However, before they could find Ichigo, they both felt a large amount of reiatsu. Tatsuki got into a fighting stance as Rukia started the incantation for one of the demon spells. However, they were no match for this Hollow, the one who was known throughout Spirit Society as the Grandfisher, one of the more elite Hollows.

"I thought I smelled at least one female's soul and one of them a shinigami, how delightful for me it is to eat one of you again." He said before smashing down on Tatsuki with his foot, effectively pinning her to the ground. While he was distracted with the human girl, Rukia activated her kido, which had little to no effect on the great Hollow.

"I better take care of you first Shinigami. It will be easier to take care of the small fry afterwards." He said as his tongue started to come out from his body; however before he wrapped it over her body, Ichigo came charging in, kicking its mask to the side, Having Rukia be freed from what was going to happen and also free Tatsuki from his giant foot Tatsuki slowly got up, still wheezing from the cheap shot that he gave her.

"Rukia!' He shouted as she grabbed the glove and quickly shoved it through his body, transforming Ichigo once more into his shinigami counterpart.

"Alright, attacking me is one thing, but when you start going after my friends, that's when you cross the line, bastard." He said as he jumped and swung his zanpaktou, aiming to end this fight quickly. However, the hair or fur on his body jumped up and not only caught his body, but pierced his shoulder.

Ichigo didn't feel anything as the spike of fur went through his shoulder, shredding muscle tissues as it tore through one of his shoulders. Soon after, blood was starting to pour out of the wound, not in droplets or dripping, but like a small stream.

"Kuso, how could that get through?" he thought to himself as he dodged another stomp and jumping from the fur spikes. One unnatural hole through his body was one too many. Slashing the fur, he went towards the Hollow's head but then a spike from behind was able to bluntly hit him in the back, making him stumble before another set was tied around his limbs and neck.

"What? Are you done jumping and swinging around already? And here I thought that with a sword that big you would be somewhat of a challenge. And here I thought you were actually worth my time." He said as the fur started pulling on his limbs, the one on his neck starting to constrict him from breathing.

'Damn, what can I do now? If I don't do something soon, I'll die.' He thought to himself as his vision started to blur. However, out of the corner of his eye he saw two daggers coming towards him, slicing towards the ropes of fur that were containing his sword and his breathing. Before Grand Fisher could do anything else, Ichigo cut himself free of the rest of the ropes.

"Maa," a voice said from behind them. Turning around, the three saw two shinigami there, the one from the shrieker incident and another one that had the same clothing but had two dagger sheaths on the back of her waist in an x, her zanpaktou going across them. The two shinigami then walked over to Ichigo, the first one placing his hand on Ichigo's shoulder.

"Take a break gaki," The first said, placing his hand on his left zanpaktou. "Kou (Phoenix) and I got him." Of course, Ichigo was against this but before he could protest, Kou took her palm and slammed it into his stomach, pushing him back towards the two other girls.

"Listen here gaki," Kou said in a feminine voice. "You are way out of your league here." She then moved to pick up her two thrown daggers. She then turned to the second shinigami and said. "Ready for this Tenkei (Heaven-sent Warning)?" Grandfisher just laughed as he heard the names of his opponents.

"You are going to warn me? Warn me of what?" Grandfisher asked while laughing only to get a sigh from the hooded man.

"Maa, you are a troublesome eh?" Tenkei then disappeared and then reappeared behind Grandfisher, a gash appearing out of nowhere on the moss like hollow. It was then that Tenkei turned around and stared at the hollow once more. "Let's just say I was given the name because I am a warning to all hollows who decide to become too troublesome eh?"

Even with that said, Grandfisher still continued his menacing laughter. With in a moment, more green moss covered the wound, making it appear as if it was never there. Without warning, more green fur shot out of the giant hollow at the two shinigami, trying to strike them down. With quick reflexes, the two shinigami dodged the attacks and tried to cut down the offending green fur like "limbs".

"Is that all you got?" The female asked, taunting Grand Fisher as he tried sending more and more spikes at them, gathering speed and intensity with each attack. It was then that Grandfisher got his chance. Tripping Kou with one of his green moss attacks, he charged her with red blade like nails.

"Crap!" Kou said as she waited for the attack. A wet splat occurred but oddly no pain. Looking up, Kou gasped in horror as she saw four blood red nails sticking through Tenkei as he stood over her.

"Maa, so troublesome you are." Tenkei said with a small grin on his face before coughing up some blood. "You couldn't have gotten this rusty so quickly eh?" With a quick swipe of his sword, Tenkei made the beast jump back before collapsing to the ground. Trying to hold his weak grin, Tenkei said, "Or maybe I am the rusty one?" with that he knew no more.

"Tenkei!" Kou cried as blood poured out of his body. It was then at that moment the sky opened and decided to cry with her as rain started to pour down. Taking her daggers in her shaking hands, Kou slowly got up from the bloody body of her partner as she stared at the mass of green fur/moss.

"I swear," Kou started as Grandfisher and her eyes locked.

"You swear what? My defeat? I'll tell you the same thing I'd tell the brat sitting over there. Anger and emotions will only dull your blade." Grandfisher laughed. With an angry yell, Kou charged forward towards the beast. It was then at that moment, as her blades were about to land on the beast, a bright light engulfed them. When the light died down, a woman was floating in front of the two, her hair a light brown as her eyes a light grey. Stunned for moment, this gave Grandfisher the moment he needed as he backhanded Kou away towards her partner. Ichigo froze as he saw the figure within the light.

"Mom?" he mumbled as he tried getting up. Grandfisher noticed this and jumped towards his location, ready to put him out of his misery, for good. However, when he tried going through with that plan, something was stopping him.

"What is this?" Grandfisher yelled in shock, not being able to move at all. "What is this force that has locked me in place?" However, Grandfisher didn't have time to think of this as a piercing pain shot through his shoulder as the blade of one Ichigo Kurosaki slashed right into it.

"You bastard!" Ichigo screamed. "It was you that night wasn't it!" Ichigo then pushed the blade in more. "It was you at the river! Admit it! You were the one that killed her!" With a cry of pain, Grandfisher knocked Ichigo away into a tree as he fled into the night, his wounds getting the better of him.

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled as she ran over to her orange haired company's bloody and broken body. Gently, she took his head and rested it in her lap as she slowly brushed his hair with her fingers, tears streaming down her eyes.

"You baka," She cried. "Why are you the one always getting hurt over everyone else?"

"Because no one should have to feel what I feel. Not if it's within my power to stop it." Ichigo mumbled, tired and battle weary. Kou sighed as she saw the two laying there. She wondered if she wasn't so stupid, Tenkei wouldn't be in bad of shape as he was now. Speaking of which, an "Ugh" was heard from behind her as she turned to see Tenkei trying to lean up against an old tree. Seeing him give a quick peace sign, Kou walked up to him and quickly slapped him across the face.

"Ack!" Tenkei yelled as he fell over but his body never hit the ground as Kou caught him. With tears in her eyes, Kou said. "You baka….making me worry."

"Maa," Tenkei said. "I told you our line of work is troublesome." Tenkei then looked over to Ichigo and made a motion to carry him over.

"Oi," Tenkei said, making both Rukia and Tatsuki look over to him. Tatsuki removed Ichigo from her lap and took a defensive position in front of him.

"You are going to hurt him while he is like this –" Tatsuki started before Kou cut her off.

"Look here lady, do you want your boyfriend healed or not?" Kou asked causing both Tatsuki and Rukia to blush. With a quick nod from both girls, Kou set Tenkei down next to Ichigo but not before asking, "Are you sure you are up to this?"

With a nod, Tenkei mumbled a few words before saying, "Art of Purification 56: Angel's Breath." It was then that a blue mist exited out of Tenkei's mouth and over Ichigo's body, slowly closing his wounds on his body. Nodding at his work, Tenkei slowly got up, ready to leave.

"The gaki worked hard to day. He deserves the rest." Kou said.

"Make sure to get out of this rain soon or else you guys will catch a cold." Tenkei smiled before both disappeared into the night……

* * *

Ichigo sighed as he stood in front of his mother's grave.

"Gomen," He started in a soft voice. "I wasn't able to avenge you, mom."

"Well, as long as you show her you're healthy, she can rest assured on the other side." A voice said from behind him. Turning to his side, Ichigo saw that it was his father standing by his side.

"Don't eavesdrop on your son talking to himself." Ichigo responded. It was then that Isshin just grinned as he took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.

"I thought you quit." Ichigo said as he saw the act that his father was doing.

Taking a drag, Isshin responded, "She complimented me on it when we first started dating. "Your hand looks cool when you're smoking," she said." Isshin then grinned again as he rubbed his hand behind his neck. "Thinking about it now, that was the first and last time she complimented me. So I smoke just this one day every year. Here in front of her." At these words, Ichigo could barely hold in his tears.

"How can you smile?" Ichigo asked. "Why isn't anyone blaming me?!" Ichigo body was now shaking. "This is too hard! If you'd just tear into me, it'd be easier….." He then turned to his father and asked. "Why?"

"Why should I blame you?" Isshin asked, his eyebrow raised lazily. "If I blamed you for Masaki's death, she'd get angry at me. It wasn't anyone's fault that Masaki died." Isshin then looked up to the sky, a faraway look appearing in his eyes.

"It's just that…" The older Kurosaki started again, trying to find the right words. "…… the woman I fell in love with was a woman who didn't mind dying to protect her kid." The older Kurosaki then turned to look at his son. "And don't forget…." Isshin then gave his son a wink. "……you're the man who the woman I fell in love with lost her life to protect."

"Pop…" Ichigo said, for once with out words to the older Kurosaki. It was then that Isshin moved to walk away but not before kneeing Ichigo in the back.

"Owww!" Ichigo groaned.

"Live to the fullest, Ichigo." Isshin said as he walked out of graveyard. "Live to the fullest…..age to the fullest…..go bald to the fullest……and die long after I do." Isshin then stopped. "And if possible, die with a smile. Otherwise, I won't be able to look Masaki in the eye. Don't be wishy-washy. You're still too young to look cool carrying your grief around." Isshin then started to walk out of the cemetery again. "I'll be waiting down below." And with that, the older kurosaki made his exit.

Nodding at this, Ichigo said, "You listening, Rukia?" Not excepting an answer, Ichigo continued. "Let me be a Shinigami for a little longer. I wanna get stronger. More….more….stronger so I can protect them from hollows….protect the people being targeted. I'm going to _beat_ him! Otherwise….." Ichigo then turned his head to see Rukia staring back at him. "I won't be able to face my mom!"

"Ichigo……"

* * *

FireSamurai: And that as we say, is a wrap. Before this chapter started, my partner stated something and got out of hand. Now while I don't console Kitsune6 for what he/she did, I truly feel embarrassed by my partner. Let me reassure you that I was not involved in this at all. If you want to get mad at DASM, PM him, don't waste a review getting revenge on him.

Nina: So what do you have in store for us next Taichou?

DASM: If we told you that, it wouldn't be fun, right?

Nina: (frowning) I suppose so.

FireSamurai: Anyways, in the next chapter, Tatsuki broods over what happened at the graveyard and how she was unable to help Ichigo in his fight with Grandfisher.

DSAM: Please send us reviews.


	6. The First of Many

FireSamurai: Hello everyone! (see angry readers mob) Ack! (hides behind DASM)

Dragon and Sword Master: We are sorry for the lateness of this chapter. Both of us have been having going through some hard times but that will not stop us from writing for our readers!

FireSamurai: (from behind DASM) That's right! So don't come after us with pitch forks and torches please!

Dragon and Sword Master: (sighs) Anyway, on with the long over due chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 6 The First of Many….**

The bright rays of the sun light shown on the young Arisawa sighed as she once again curls in her bed. It has been a week or so since the incident at Miss Kurosaki's grave. Even just thinking about it gave Tatsuki the shivers as she remembered everything. She knew being a soul reaper was dangerous. She knew that from watching Ichigo fight all those hollows, but for her to see Ichigo so utterly defeated like that and yet being helpless to do anything to help him……she curled her body more at the thought. She was utterly helpless. She couldn't do a thing. She just stood there and watched as her best friend (and possible boyfriend though she would never admit that even on pain of death) tried to avenge his mother's soul. Even Rukia could do have done something. She could have used her kido to distract the monster while they were trying to get away. As Tatsuki thought more and more of this, her body curled more. Since the accident, she started to have nightmares of Ichigo dying in her arms, his blood coating her body as Grandfisher laughed over them. She shivered even more as she remembers the gruesome dream.

"But what can I do about it?" Tatsuki whispered to herself as she stared at nothing. Hearing the alarm on her clock starting to beep for her to get up, Tatsuki slowly removed her self from her bed to get ready for the day……..

* * *

"Yo." Tatsuki heard as she closed her house gates. Looking to her side, she saw Ark sitting there with a smoke in his hand. She could only raise an eyebrow at the strange white haired youth. He always slept in class yet when he is called upon, all he has to do was look at the board and know the answer. He also seems to be lazy yet during gym he is always the last to tier. He always seems to be around the new girl, Nina, if Tatsuki remembered correctly. It would be odd to find one with out the other. To say the least, the white haired man was very perplexing to the young dragon.

"What are you doing here?" Tatsuki asked Ark as he took another drag. He then got up, stretched and started to walk away. This caused Tatsuki's eyebrow to twitch slightly.

"Hey!" She yelled. "I asked you a question!" He then turned back to her with his lazy expression and said,

"Let's chat."

"Chat about what? The weather?" Tatsuki asked, her voice laced with sarcasm as she quickly followed him.

"I was hoping to talk about your boyfriend, but the weather will also do well if you are more interested in that." Ark replied in his laid back type of voice. Tatsuki could only blush at the comment as she followed the white haired man.

"Why do you care about Ichigo?" Ark then turned to stare at her with a blank expression. A moment passed before Tatsuki frowned.

"What?" She asked.

"So you two are officially a couple now?" Ark asked in a perfectly straight voice. For a moment there was a complete silence before an explosion occurred.

"WE ARE NOT NOR EVER WERE A COUPLE!!!!!!!!!"

* * *

Meanwhile, our favorite young orange haired shinigami was sneezing his head off as he tried not be late to school because he overslept from fighting to many hollows the night before.

'Why do I feel like someone's talking bad about me?' he thought to himself for a while. 'Oh well, can't really think on it if I plan not to be late.' He said to himself as he continues to run………

* * *

"So that means you two aren't a couple yet?" Ark asked, still with that same bored look. This of course made Tatsuki red in the face, though whether it was from anger or embarrassment she didn't know.

"What does me and Ichigo being a couple have to do with anything?!" Tatsuki yelled at the white haired smoked. Ark only grinned at this as he took another drag.

"Maybe everything," He started as he took another drag. "Or maybe nothing at all." Tatsuki frowned at the answer but then grinned.

"Speaking of couples," She started. "What about you and Nina? I've never seen the two of you apart, besides now that is." When she didn't get a response, she noticed that Ark was way ahead of her.

"Hey wait up!" Tatsuki yelled as she noticed Ark pulling out a juice drink from a near by vending machine. Giving Tatsuki a moment to catch her breath, Ark spoke once more.

"So, you hate being on the side lines Tatsuki?" Ark asked seriously, not looking at her. Tatsuki could only blink in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Tatsuki asked.

"You want to stop feeling useless right Tatsuki?" Ark continued, still taking a drink from his juice. He then turned to face her, a serious look in his eye. "You wish to fight along his side don't you?" Tatsuki only frowned at Ark.

"You aren't making any sense." Tatsuki frowned. Sighing, Ark just said, "Troublesome," as he reached into his pocket and produced a small gray box and handed it to Tatsuki. Tatsuki just stared at the weird gift.

"What is this –"

"When you make your resolve, open that box." And with that, the white haired man walked ahead, leaving a confused dragon to her thoughts…….

* * *

"Arisawa-chan, you are late.' The teacher said before Tatsuki moved to take her seat behind Inoue as usual. Noticing that Ark was sleeping as usual, she found it odd that he was always able to answer every question correctly and get a good amount of points on tests. What ticked her off more though was the fact that he wasn't late to school today.

The teacher had to go back towards his office in order to get something, and while he did that, Tatsuki asked Ichigo if he was okay. He replied that he was fine before seeing Inoue out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey Ichigo, did you hear that Don Kan'onji is making a special appearance?" She asked as soon as she was in front of him. He, however, reacted badly to the news. "That's a faint reaction…Don't you know who he is?"

"Drop in…"

"Bingo. It's a fun show, huh? Then you should come with us Bwahaa…" At this moment, Tatsuki decided to spare Ichigo some trouble and annoyance by silently heading behind Inoue and raising her hands, shouting, "banzai! I already asked him Inoue, but he refused. You want to go with me instead?" Inoue responded with a sure and as they walked away, Tatsuki turned her head and mouthed the words, "You owe me" to Ichigo. After that incident, school was normal as always and passed quickly for some reason. Maybe it was because of the fact of what was going to happen later on tonight, but who could tell?

* * *

As everyone started to gather, Ichigo huffed and put his usual irritated smirk on his face. He didn't want to be here, but since his family was here, he decided to accompany them so that they wouldn't get into too much trouble, but you could tell he didn't want to be here.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening. On this week's Drop In Holy Ground, we bring you an urgent live broadcast from a condemned hospital in the Karakura neighborhood where it is said you can hear the screams of angry spirits." The announcer said before a female voice over the speakers continued, "I wonder what we will witness this evening." As the voice sounded out, the announcer spoke once again. "Now then, let us welcome our star. The charismatic spiritual medium for the new century…Hell's messenger, MISTER DON KAN'ONJI!"

As this was said, high above them all, a man jumped out of the helicopter. While he was falling, he shouted "SPIRITS ARE ALWAYS WITH YOU!" before opening a parachute and floating downwards to the stage below him before asking the crowd how they were doing. After he heard a favorable response he went on saying, "Tonight I'll let all my babies hear the whisper of the spirits."

"_Oh brother,"_ Ichigo thought to himself before he saw a reporter ask him what he thought of the town and tuned him out especially since it was one of his catchphrases.

"_I HATE ghost shows."_ Ichigo thought to himself as they said they were going to a commercial for the show and to have the audience move to the exorcism area. As they were moving towards the new area, Inoue ran into Ichigo.

"Kurosaki-kun! Uh…I'm sorry about earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"Tatsuki-chan told me you hate these kinds of shows. I didn't know…"

"It's fine. I'm not mad."

"But you still came anyways. Why is that?"

"My little sister and my pop are huge fans of the show. I pretty much came because of them. It'd be kinda sad to make them go by themselves."

"You're so nice, Kurosaki-kun"

"That's just normal Inoue"

While the two of them were talking, Tatsuki was looking for her friend.

"_That girl is a total airhead at times. I told her not to get separated from me."_ She thought to herself while looking for her charge. While she was doing this, she bumped into Ark.

"Ark! Have you seen Inoue-chan?" Tatsuki asked her as the white-haired man took a drag on his cigarette before nodding his head. Before she could ask where, Ark pointed his hand towards the back of the crowd. Tatsuki quickly thanked him but before she could leave to find her, he grabbed Tatsuki's arm.

"Just a second Tatsuki. Don't forget that all things have a set limit. If you wait to long to talk to the prince, he might just head along and be with the princess and leave the dragon to sit in her cave wallowing away, all alone."

Tatsuki stopped after that, where the hell did Ark learn to talk and give advice like that? She reached into her pocket and grabbed the box that he gave to earlier, looking at it for a while remembering what he said.

"Who cares if the dragon is wallowing if the prince and princess are happy?" She muttered to herself before putting it back into her pocket and standing up to see Orihime talking to Ichigo. She could barely hear the two of them talking and yelled very loudly so that the two of them could hear her since the crowd was too densely packed for her to get near the two.

"Inoue, I'm going without you!"

"Tatsuki-chan, wait for me!" She yelled back as she ran off. As Ichigo and his family moved with the rest of the crowd he stated his opinions of the situation…all of them negative.

Rukia noticed this and asked her partner what was wrong. As he turned around, she immediately started the idiot's chant, instantly making Ichigo want to hit her. Instead he just cursed her.

"Hey now, why are you scowling so? Smell the roses. If you don't have fun, life will be short." She was interrupted by a "shut up, besides this is my normal face," by the carrot top but she ignored him and continued on saying, "You must be tired from always having to juggle schoolwork and Shinigami work. There will be more difficult fights from now on. Why aren't you taking the opportunity to relax when you are given the chance to do so?"

"Rukia, you…" Ichigo started as he turned around to look at the girl.

"By the way…what kind of festival is this?" she asked with genuine curiosity while Ichigo just stared at her with shock. She didn't know what this was all about? He lost his cool at the moment and shouted, "YOU CAME ALONG WITHOUT KNOWING ANYTHING?! Man, you think there's really ghosts in a condemned place like this?"

"Why do you ask?"

"If there was, wouldn't you or someone else have sent them to Soul Society a long time ago?"

"Not necessarily. The kinds of ghosts that live in a place like these are usually Earth-bound spirits, the ones in-between the ones you usually saw and the ones that you fight now. They usually dissolve into the ground, so they almost _never_ show up on our sensors. There is only one condition that an Earth-bound spirit will show themselves. It is only when a human enters there territory." She finished, right before a low moan filled the area.

After that moan; Chad, Inoue and Tatsuki, and Karin, Ichigo and Rukia heard it as well. Inoue and Tatsuki looked at each other with something like fear on their faces.

"That is the scream of and Earth-bound spirit. Looks like there was one here after all," She said before Ichigo asked her if she wasn't mistaking it for a Hollow's scream. Sighing to herself to sound like he should have known she never made a mistake started to explain.

"You probably noticed that there are a few patterns to a Hollow's voice. An Earth-bound spirit with a strong attachment to this world makes one of those as it degrades into a Hollow while being neglected, like this one." Rukia said, finishing as realization came to the carrot top. "Yes, he is a plus turning into a Hollow…a demi-Hollow."

"He does feel like a Hollow, but…he doesn't have that mask and the hole…it hasn't completely opened up yet."

Seeing that the brawns of the partnership had gained some brain, Rukia decided to explain the rest.

"True. The hole in a Hollow's chest is a mark that they have lost their heart and become an embodiment of instinct. The mask that they have is a barrier to protect this instinct from the physical world. Neither is necessary when one has a heart. You know that when a person leaves the body their chain of fate is severed and usually they wait for a Shinigami to guide them to Soul Society; however, the object of those regrets chain those who have regrets in this world down." Rukia explained, once again taking out her handy notebook to show Ichigo. When she noticed that Ichigo wasn't paying attention, a loud 'THWACK' could be heard through out the crowd. Coughing and regaining her composure, Rukia continued her explanation. "His heart is imprisoned in this hospital." She finished. It was at that moment that the ghost began to speak.

"This hospital belongs to me!" It bellowed. "I won't let anyone have it! Keep the hell out, you bastards!" it bellowed more.

"What a shallow loser." Ichigo mumbled as he listened to the hollow's rant. It was then at that moment the show decided to start.

"Looks like something's starting." Rukia said, kind of excited. Ichigo just sighed in confusion.

"Spirits are always with you!" Kan'onji started. "Bwahahahahaha!" he laughs, the crowd laughing with him (excluding Ichigo and Ark of course.)

"Hey!" Ichigo yelled at Rukia. "Don't you care?!" Rukia just turned to Ichigo with a calm smile.

"Don't get upset." She said. "It usually takes months and months to become a Hollow."

"Now then," The announcer started again. "Kan'onji-san's exorcism is finally about to begin."

"We can't have him going wild with all these eyes watching." Rukia explained over the announcer. "The konso can wait until after the festival."

"But, I mean…"

"Right before they become hollows," Rukia cut Ichigo off, "they let out frightful screams and writhe in pain." Rukia then turned to look at the earth bound spirit. "Did he look like he was suffering that much?" Turning his attention over to the spirit, Ichigo saw that what Rukia was saying had its point. It didn't look like the spirit was going to turn into a hollow at that very moment, right?

"This is truly an extremely bad spirit! Kan'onji said after a few moments, the spirit yelling in his face (whether or not Kan'onji noticed is a total other thing.)

"I'll have to use my Super Spirit Stick, and end this in an instant!" With that said, Kan'onji thrust the end of the black rod into the hole of said spirit.

"Wh-!?" Ichigo said, shocked at the stupidity that the 'charismatic spiritual medium for the new century' was doing as he saw Kan'onji slowly turn the hole in the spirits chest, loosing it with every turn.

"I'll send you to rest in peace soon, _baby_." Kan'onji said, digging the spirit stick in even more. The crowd just cheered him on as Kan'onji 'exorcized' the earthbound spirit.

"What the hell's he doing?!" Ichigo said.

"The fool…." Rukia commented. "…. Doing that will just speed his transformation to a Hollow!" It was that moment, with a great yell, Kan'onji started to speak some mystical gibberish to finish off the spirit. Taking matters into his own hands, Ichigo jumped over the rope trying to stop him.

"STOP THAT!" Ichigo yelled, but his words fell on deaf ears as Kan'onji just continued his 'work.'

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled but her voice to fell on deaf ears as she saw Ichigo get tackled by all the security guards, Rukia not being able to get near him to turn him into a shinigami.

'I got to help him,' she thought, ready to jump over the rope. If Ichigo was getting this wild because of a spirit then something is seriously wrong. Before she could jump, however, a hand grabbed on to her shoulder and pulled her back.

"Let go of me!" Tatsuki yelled at her attacker. "I got to go help him!"

"Yara yara," Someone said next to her. Turning her head, she saw that it was Ark who spoke with Nina next to him. "Why do women always have to be so troublesome in dire times?"

"Let go of me!" Tatsuki yelled again, surprised that the white haired man has such a strong grip. "Ichigo needs my help!" Ark just raised an eyebrow at this.

"Does he now?" They both turned to see Ichigo was now somehow in his shinigami form as he ran to stop Kan'onji. The spirit was now yelling in pain as the chains that bind it to the ground broke off as it wildly thrashed around.

"He seems to be doing fine on his own." Ark said, not seeming to care for the situation. Tatsuki looked to Ark in shock.

"Does that mean…." Tatsuki asked, not really getting her question out but Ark nodded in understanding.

"Nina too." Ark answered. Tatsuki looked towards the red head who only nodded once.

"How…." Tatsuki wanted to ask but Ark cut her off.

"That doesn't really matter now does it?" Ark said, taking a smoke out and lighting it, to which Nina frowned on. "Point is, Ichigo may need your help on this one." With that said, the three turned to the action where they saw the earthbound spirit explode in a flash of light. Tatsuki just sighed in relief.

"It seems Ichigo was able to stop the mad man in time." She whispered to herself. Nina just shook her head.

"Hey hot head! Look again! Your prince charming is about to be attack by the monster." Nina said, looking towards the roof of the hospital. Tatsuki's head shot up as she saw the once earth bound spirit turn into a large lizard like hollow, is white teeth almost seeming to be grinning in anticipation at all the souls it can it. For at moment it was dead silent before it let out a mighty roar.

"So that is the hollow that the spirit turned out to be eh….." Ark mumbled as he smoked his cig. "It became a Spitter."

"It-it hurts…." Spitter mumbled. "Feed me…." He said before jumping down from the rooftop. Tatsuki looked worried. Looking around for Ichigo's body, she saw Rukia running with a man in a hat. Slung across his shoulder was Ichigo's prone body. Seeing that it was safe, she turned back towards Ark. Steeling herself and making her decision.

"I have made my resolve." she said to the white haired chain smoker. Ark merely raised an eyebrow to this.

"Is that so little dragon?" He then grinned a little. "And what is your choice?"

"I am going to help him, no matter what." She said, courage blazing behind her eyes. Ark just grinned wider.

"Then open it." Ark said, taking another drag as the sound of fighting was behind heard behind them. Nodding, she took out the small grey box and slowly opened it. To her amazement, inside was a glowing grey feather.

"What is this?" Tatsuki said as her hand got closer to the small glowing object. Before she could even touch it, a bright light shot out of the feather and into Tatsuki. When the light died down, Tatsuki was in shock. The feather somehow…….somehow turned her into a shinigami! Her soul was now standing outside of her black shinigami robes but different from the ones Ichigo wears. She was wear a black sleeveless and shoulder less top with black baggy pants and black forearm wraps (for those of you who have seen the later eps, think of how Yoruichi looks when she is fighting Soi Fong and that is what Tatsuki is wearing), her zanpakutou resting against the back of her waist.

"How the hell….?" Tatsuki asked but her wonderment got cut off from a cough from a certain red head.

"What the hell you doing standing there? Doesn't your boyfriend need some help?" Nina yelled at the new shinigami. Nodding, Tatsuki soon raced off into the hospital. It was then that Nina turned her fury on our lazy white headed friend.

"What the hell did you just give her?" Nina asked as they saw Tatsuki's Shinigami form heading off to join Ichigo.

Someone was walking up from behind as she saw the whole event. Frowning at what was in the box, she headed over to the boy. "You didn't give her what I think you just gave her, did you?"

"Yara yara…You make things too troublesome Fuu-chan." Ark said without turning around to see the person behind him. Nina was pouting a little, especially since he added –chan to her name, and he yet done so with her. If Ark saw her, he would also be seeing a small blush creep up the girl's face, but she was hiding it behind her book, just in case he turned around.

"Everything is troublesome to you, eh Are-kun?" Fuu responded.

Ark shrugged as he took another cigarette out of a pouch and lit it. "When it comes to this type of crap," at this he took a drag before continuing, "Everything is troublesome no matter what we do. Besides, Taishou said for us not to interfere and you heard what she said after the battle with Grandfisher. This will allow her to help her protector and not feel useless."

Seeing Tatsuki head off into the building after the two, Ark and Nina, just stood there amidst the crowd that was wondering what the hell was going on. They wanted to make sure that the Taishou and the other members of their "family" were safe. They were also ordered to stay there in case things got out of hand.

When Tatsuki entered the hospital, she that it would be unstable ground, but from the battle between Ichigo and the idiot fighting against that Spitter Hollow, and she was wondering how the hospital was still standing. Slash and bite marks were all around the ceiling and wall supports, and there was some type of gunk on the floor. Assuming that was the Spitter's ammo, she made sure not to step into any of it. As time went on and she kept moving forward, she was starting to get worried. She hadn't seen either of them yet and she didn't know whether the Hollow would come out of the floor or anything. She knew it was possible when she saw a huge crater in the floor in front of her. Seeing that she had room to cross, she did so, making sure that the floor was stable enough first.

Heading to the roof, she reached out and pulled her zanpakutou out of it's sheathe. Noticing that it wasn't as big as Ichigo, it was long enough to pass off as a regular katana, but the hand grip was an unusual shade of crimson. Heading through the door, she noticed that the fake spirit medium was just about to get eaten by the Hollow. She was just about to push him out of the way when Ichigo shouted, drawing attention to himself. The Spitter shot its gunk around him, trapping him on the guardrail of the hospital's roof. It then jumped and before anything could be done, Tatsuki shoulder tackled the hollow, making it lose its balance and missed Ichigo by a millimeter. "Need help?" She asked before one of his claws hit her, making her fall back and have her body brutally meet the wall from where she emerged. Before she could move and get her own attack off, the Spitter hacked the same glob that had Ichigo pinned to the guardrail. Seeing that the male Shinigami had more reitsu than the human or female Shinigami, the hollow went back and focused on the one he was going to eat. Jumping and opening his mouth, it found that it was being held open by something and couldn't move forward.

Ichigo opened his eyes and noticed that Don was holding the hollow back with his staff.

"Are you hurt, boy?" he asked, but Ichigo just told him to run away saying that he was no match for the hollow.

"Boy! I too have some power, if very little. I think I know the difference in power between my enemy and myself." As this was being said, a crack started to appear in the middle of his staff. Don took no heed at this and kept on talking.

"You've made a deep impression on me. You are constantly thinking of the people's safety first. Great! Let me call you _friend_, but spelled c-o-m-r-a-d-e-i-n-a-r-m-s."

Smiling at this, Ichigo sweatdropped at this, muttering, "Uh, no. That's okay." Don didn't hear him as he started charging energy up in his fist.

"Kan'onji's-ryuu Final Super Attack! Kan'onball!" Turning around, Don aimed the small ball of energy at Ichigo and fired. Floating towards Ichigo's position, he wondered if it was even going to help, but as it contacted the gunk that held Ichigo in place; it exploded and allowed Ichigo to move once again. After this, the Spitter knocked Don aside.

"Kan'onji!" Ichigo yelled before Don muttered, "Even if this body should be broken…if I can go while being a shield for kids with their whole lives ahead of them…then I have not a shed of regret for my life. Make it a good one." At this he did a nice guy pose and fainted. As the hollow was heading over to finish him off, Ichigo ran over and swung his blade, catching it and forcing it backwards so hard that it cracks appeared on its mask. Raising his sword Ichigo said, "Sorry, but this is the end!" At that, Ichigo swung his sword down hard, slicing right through the hollow's mask.

"Alright!" Don yelled before Ichigo sheathed his blade. Noticing the gunk disappear, Tatsuki fell from her position on the wall to the roof's floor and was about to see if Ichigo needed any help but noticed that she wasn't needed. She quietly waited inside the doorway for her friend, knowing that he would show Don what he had done. As the fake medium was yelling great words of encouragement, Ichigo was not too happy. "Kan'onji. Don't get all giddy."

"Why not? You defeated the monster and you should be more excit-" Don started to say before the Hollow's mask and form disappeared and he was looking at the man who he had purified and sent to heaven, or so he thought. Taking in a breath, Don was shocked. "It can't be!" He started to say before starting to say other things as well, never finishing the thought.

"That is what's called a Hollow. When the chain attached to a ghost's chest comes off and a hole opens…the ghost becomes an unreasonable monster, a 'Hollow.'"

"A hole in the chest…" Don thought before falling to his knees. "What have I been doing all these years?" Tears started to fall as Ichigo walked away not hearing the man continue. Turning around after he heard the audience starting to cheer.

"Hey, that's enough crying for now, Hero. Everyone's waiting for you." Ichigo said before they heard many people calling on the fake spirit medium's name.

"What's wrong? Go ahead and give them what they want. That is a hero's job after all, ain't it?" Ichigo asked before Kan'onji was in gratitude of the Shinigami beside him.

Not needing to know that Don was going to say one of his more favorite lines, he walked back towards the door. He was going to head out of the door before a hand grabbed him. Before he could unsheathe his zanpakutou, Tatsuki hugged him hard.

"Tatsuki?!" Ichigo asked, surprised that his old childhood friend was now a shinigami. "How the hell-"

"Just shut up you baka!" Tatsuki yelled, continuing the hug him. "Just let me have this moment." She whispered. Ichigo, sighing, wrapped his arms around Tatsuki as they just held each other, one with worry in their heart and the other with confusion…….

* * *

Dragon and Sword Master: So who is this mysterious person that somehow knows Ark and why is she concerned about what happened with his present to the young dragon. I guess you'll just have to wait until we unveal the next chapter.

Ark: How troublesome….

FireSamurai: Since we got this chapter out a little late, we decided to add a little extra at the end! We added an omake. I had no part in the omake. That is sole property of my Naruto-reincarnated partner though it was my idea for the record.

Dragon and Sword Master: Hey, I resent that remark!

Fire Samurai: Anyways, here is the omake that my brash partner made.

Dragon and Sword Master: Before reading, if you think Tatsuki seems out of character; I already know that which is why it's an omake and now I say enjoy at your own risk.

* * *

**Omake**

It was right before school and Tatsuki was looking at Ichigo, slightly mad that he wasn't going to go to the special production of Don Kan'Onji's special production in Karakura Town.

"Oh come on Ichigo, please?" Tatsuki asked her best friend. Ichigo just stared at her as if she grew another head. She knew he hated his show, matter of fact she knew that he hated all ghost shows since his powers showed him firsthand that ghosts were definitely different from whatever he saw.

"Are you insane Tatsuki?" was the comment and question that came from the loud and overprotective orange-haired idiot. At this moment, she started to sulk before remembering something that she would never think of doing. 'Why didn't I think of that before? Oh yeah, I would never do anything like that unless it was dire. Well, this is dire.' She thought to herself before her conscious filled in the last part.

As Ichigo enjoyed the silence coming from Tatsuki, he turned and looked to make sure that nothing was wrong. This was a fatal mistake as she then decided to use the one weapon no guy can resist. The puppy dog eyes. 'The hell? I thought Tats couldn't do the puppy dog eyes effect. Must break contact.' he thought to himself for a while, just staring and trying to break away. He was used to the look from his sisters, especially Yuzu, but from Tatsuki it was something unexpected which caused him not to be on guard for when she sprung her trap.

(30 seconds later)

"Alright, fine. I'll go with you on one condition. Don't ever use those again." He said after failing to break contact. He had tried to get it away by closing his eyes, but his eyes didn't take to the darkness for long and so he had to open them once again and stare into her Puppy dog look again.

"Ever? How about just tonight?" she asked, pouting and using those dreaded eyes again. Ichigo quickly agreed, not wanting to subject himself once again to that dreaded look.

* * *

Dragon and Sword Master: We hope you all enjoyed that.

FireSamurai: Yes we do. Now don't forget to send in reviews!


	7. Out of Body, Out of Mind

FireSamurai: We are alive!!! (gets trash thrown at him)

DASM: Baka…..(Cleans the trash up)

FireSamurai: (sweatdrops)(coughs) Gomen about the late update everyone. Life once again caught up with us (school, being rushed to the hospital (mostly me), summer school, senior year (mostly me again),etc) BUT we have FINALLY updated our story.

DASM: But first, answering reviews.

BlazexFlame : Blaze my friend, all girls have that power...man's only weakness...even if we dunno they can do it…….its a scary power…..

Rycr: Glad to see you jumped ship. We don't mind the Ichigo/Rukia pairing, it's just that there weren't a lot of Ichigo/Tatsuki pairings and well...she's been with him through everything.

Cyberweasel89: First off, we thank you for the review. It was probably one of our most inspiring ones to help us continue writing this story and we have many things to answer in your review.

DSAM: 1. Tatsuki and Chad...I honestly think that's a small stretch from Ichigo and Tatsuki. We can see it but then again...kinda not. It's like Gaara and Sakura stories in the Naruto realm (at least that's my take on it)

FireSamurai: 2. It's okay and we thank you for using constructive criticism instead of flaming us. I'm glad you think are writing has improved and we like to think that it will keep on improving as time goes on. As for Ark and Nina……..Don't worry, we plan on flushing out their stories later on, just please be patient with us. Just remember, Ark has a giant eye patch over his left eye in case you missed that at the end of chapter 4……

DSAM: 3. Tatsuki. We will not deny nor confirm any of this but just know we do have something big planned for her.

FireSamurai: 4. Kon. Just read this chapter and find out

All other Reviews and Readers: THANK YOU for taking the time to look at our story and read and review it. We have over 10,000 hits thanks to all of you! Please continue to read and review our story.

DSAM: On to the long awaited chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 7 Out of Body, Out of Mind**

Now, for those of you who have been reading this story, we all know Areku (aka Ark)'s favor word is troublesome. Today, that word would fit just about everything that has happened to him. First, Nina had used up all the hot water in the apartment (yes they live together but in different rooms for those perverts out there). Then, because of the cold shower, he was running late. While running to school, he stubbed his toe on a huge rock cuz a black cat crossed his path which made him almost gotten ran over by five different cars, bikes and other moving vehicles which made him even more late to school. And then, top to it all off, when he did finally get there, he got called into the principle's office with Nina, Ichigo, Tatsuki, Chad, Keigo, Mizuro, Inoue and Rukia for god knows what reason. So yes, to say the least, this was a very troublesome day for our favorite white haired smoker. Ark just sighed at his misfortune.

'Well,' He thought as he stood there in front of the principal with their gym teacher chewing them out for last night's TV stunt. 'As science dictates, 'With every reaction there is a complete and opposite reaction right?' So that means I am in for some good luck soon, right?' Oh how wrong he was.

"Tenjin!" Ark just blinked. Looking around, he had noticed that only he and Nina were the only ones standing in the room besides the teachers.

"Hai Sensei?" Ark said, with that lazy look on his face which just seemed to infuriate the teacher even more. With a huff, the teacher just turned around annoyed even more.

"Get out of here! I won't even waste my breath if you aren't going to pay attention!" The sensei said.

"As you wish sensei." Ark and Nina both bowed and started to head to the door when the principal spoke up.

"Oh wait, Ark-san, Nina-san." He spoke. Turning around at the sound of their names, Ark responded. "Yes principal-sama?"

"Well," The principal started. "I wanted you to know that we are getting four new students here today." To this, Ark and Nina nodded.

"Is that so principal-sama?" Ark asked. "And what does this have to do with us?"

"Oh Are-kun," A voice said from behind them. "Is that anyway to talk about old friends transferring schools just so the gang would be back together?" Ark just froze in place when he heard that voice.

"Oh hell….." He mumbled as he turned around to see his worst fears. Standing before the duo was a woman holding a book with 'Hade Hade Paradise' in big bold letters on the front. She had white hair with a blue tint to it with two small braids going down the back as her bangs covered her right eye, her left eye being a light blue color. She wore a simple button up shirt with a plaid skirt. Nina just growled at the new student.

"Kyouran Fuujin!" Nina hissed. "What are you doing here?" Fuujin merely sighed behind her book.

"Nina, what have I told you about calling me Fuujin? I thought we were close enough for you to call me Fuu now." Fuu said from behind her book. Nina just growled louder.

"Why you - !" Nina was about to say before Ark cut her off.

"Enough Nina," Ark said, his voice slightly tired. Nina looked over to Ark, seeing the seriousness in his eye. Sighting to herself, she merely turned away from Fuu in a huff. Sighing, Ark turned to Fuu, wishing very much that he had a smoke right now.

"So Fuu-chan," Ark started, "Still have your nose in those dirty books?" He asked. (A/N: Hade Hade Paradise was a male love hentai manga made by the famous Orochimaru Hebi. It actually tied with its sister book, Ichi Ichi Paradise (written by Jiraiya Gama) for best sale records, but that is beside the point.)

"Still have that smoking problem of yours, Are-kun?" Fuu said, smiling secretly hiding behind her book. Ark merely grunted while Nina looked furious.

"So if you are here," Ark started, looking out the window. "Does that mean –," he started to say, however he didn't have to finish as he heard a crash outside.

* * *

"Baka, I'm just as old as you guys are so why can't I come with you?" A seemingly small girl whined at the guy next to her. She was about five feet tall, wearing a plain white shirt and a black dress underneath it, letting her legs show. She was wearing black shoes and on her shirt was a red necktie. The only thing that would make people look at her twice was because of her azure colored hair. 

"If that's the case Comay then you should have chosen an older look for yourself. People think you wouldn't belong in Junior High with a look like that." An older looking male said, wearing the schools white shirt and black pants, but over it were two grey belts, diagonally over the shirt and pants, held in place by a single golden buckle. A black jacket covered the shirt with white fur lining the neck and each end of the sleeve. (Think of Nova without his head mask) Having to run in order to catch up with the others, his chocolate brown hair was a total mess but this usually didn't bother him.

"Why couldn't I wear my mask…," he mumbled to himself as he felt Comay's fist hit him, hard. Glaring at the young looking girl with his forest green eyes, she just looked away with an innocent look on her face. "If you wore your mask, you'd be suspicious besides, taichou said not to be suspicious and we should stick with that plan. And it's not often that we see your face," giggling at him when he intensified his glare at her.

"Alright, I'll stop Ryu-kun." She said before they both heard a large exclamation going over in the front of the building. "Don't tell me _she's_ here too…"

"Oh great, she's here." Comay said.

"I really wish I could wear my mask," Ryu said it at the exact same time as they both were about to head around the corner.

* * *

"I swear my karma sucks today." Ark mumbled as he, Nina and Fuu saw the site before them. What they saw was…….to say the least, weird as hell, at least to normal people anyway. There were tons of male (and some female) students surrounding a picnic bench. When they got closer, they noticed a very beautiful female student. She wasn't wearing anything out of the normal. Just a plain white button down shirt with the top three buttons unbutton and a thigh short mini plaid mini skirt. She had long golden blonde hair that went down to about mid back with clear aquamarine eyes, though probably the most notable feature about this person would probably be her well……giant assets on her chest. The woman currently was gently rubbing her hand across a boys face as she winked at him seductively.

"Why me….." Ark mumbled while Nina was mumbling something about where was a Hollow when you needed one. Fuu merely continued to read her book.

"Perhaps if we sneak away she won't notice us." Nina said as she started to turn around to walk away. Unfortunately for them, then woman saw them out of the corner of her eye as she was about to kiss the fortunate (or unfortunate as the case maybe) student.

"Sorry Hun," She said. "We will have to continue this later as I have to go see someone." She then quickly let the student go as she jumped off the table and walked over to the trio, the male student crying and cursing at who ever she saw.

"Well," Ark said. "Seems like that's –" Ark started but was cut off by someone jumping on his back, nearing knocking him over.

"Ark-kun!" The woman yelled as she nuzzled her face against his. "It has been to long."

"Not long enough," Nina mumbled off to the side. Hearing that, the woman turned to face Nina.

"Ah so little Nina-chan is here too?" She grinned evilly. "Still have that thing against superior bodies?"

"Why you-!"

"If you are here," Fuu said, cutting Nina off. "Does that mean that…"

"Aiyoku Raijin." Someone said from behind them. "I thought it was you causing all this ruckus." The group turned around to see a giant man and a small little girl sitting on his shoulder. Ark smiled slightly at the sight of the other male.

"Finally," Ark said. "I was wondering when you would save me from this madness, Daichi Ryu."

"Don't forget about me!" The little girl said. "Setsuzou Comay!" Raijin just pouted at the new comers.

"Do you always have to ruin my fun Ryu-kun?" Rai pouted. Ryu just sighed at this.

"Yes Rai, especially when we are on duty." The giant man sighed. "Now please get off the Taichou." Quicker then anyone could blink, Ark darted out from under Raijin and smack Ryu upside the head.

"Baka!" Ark hissed. "Don't call me that while we are in public like this!" Ryu could only nod as he rubbed the side of his head. Ark could only sigh at this.

"Just be glad I still have some smokes left." Ark said, taking out a cancer stick from his back pocket. Damn the school rules. Ark needed a smoke and he needed it now damn it! Lighting the smoke, Ark started slowly relax.

"Now," Ark said. "I want you to all meet him." And with that, the group of six started to go look for their target.

* * *

Ichigo and the other members of his group did not see or hear the ruckus that was being created in the front of the building, no thanks to the fact that they were facing the other direction at the other side of the front gate. "All well that ends well, and it was all thanks to you Kuchiki-san," Keigo said as they walked farther away from the crash site. Rukia was still faking as they were walking away, Ichigo scowling at her while Tatsuki just said that if it wasn't for her than you couldn't get away. Ichigo scowled at her as well, saying that she was going to do the same thing to save both Inoue and herself.

"She's right, you know. Besides, how could I possibly do something like selling out on my friend, Kurosaki-kun?" She asked as she smirked, causing Ichigo to mumble out something that couldn't be heard but if you could read lips; you would know he was saying, "You bitch," to her. After that last comment from Rukia, Rukia's phone started to ring, causing both Tatsuki and Ichigo to shift their eyes downwards, as Rukia started to make an excuse, saying that she had to speak to Ichigo in private. "Everyone, please excuse us." She said as the two of them started to run in the opposite direction.

"Sorry guys, I forgot something back there. I'll meet up with you guys later!" She said as she rushed in the same direction that the other two had just left in.

"What the heck?" Keigo asked as the three of them broke off from the group as Ark and the others came around. Ark looked at them for a couple of seconds before noticing the people he wanted to talk to weren't there.

"Do you know where the dragon and protector are?" He asked the remainder of the group as they just stared at him for a minute. Slapping his forehead in anger, he repeated his question, asking where Tatsuki and Ichigo were, also adding Rukia to the question.

"Oh. They headed that…" Keigo started to say as he saw Rai turn the corner.

"Hello Beautiful," he said as he jumped in her direction, hoping to squeeze her melon sized breasts and rest his head on them. However, this was not to be the case, since Rai moved sideways, allowing Keigo to have his face meet the pavement, hard.

"Ouch," Ryu and Ark said as they saw Keigo face fall onto the pavement, the girls giggling behind them, especially Rai.

"Anyway," Ark said as he turned to the others. "As we were saying, we were wondering I you knew where –" He started to say but was cut off as he looked up to the sky. Sighing, He took another puff of his smoke as he turned to his group.

"Ok, let's go." Ark said as he started to walk away from Ichigo's friends. They just blinked in confusion as the group of new students started to walk away. Before they were out of eye sight, Raijin turned around to look at Keigo.

"Sorry, Kiddo, maybe you will have better luck next time." She winked at him before leaving with the others as Keigo just stared at the woman that just seemed to sway through the air, not even walking……..

* * *

"Well," Tatsuki yawned, "That was an easy kill." And indeed it was. It was just a normal Fishbone hollow that tried to attack some kid spirit in the park again. Ichigo only sighed as he picked up his zanpaktou, Rukia sitting right next to him. They both thought that they should give this one to Tatsuki, seeing it was her first time actually fighting once of these evil spirits. 

"Now we have to do a konso." He said, walking over to the spirit.

"Konso?" Tatsuki asked, blinking on confusion. Ichigo just nodded.

"Like this." Taking his giant zanpaktou, Ichigo smacked the hilt to the spirit's forehead. For a moment, spirit glowed blue before sinking into the ground and turning into a butterfly.

"What you do to him?" Tatsuki asked in shock.

"He preformed a konso." Rukia explained behind them. "It's also a Shinigami's job to help spirits pass on to the next world. What Ichigo just did allowed the spirit to pass on to the soul society so he could rest in peace." She then turned around and started to walk a way. "Come on, or else they are going to notice we are missing." Nodding, the two shinigami's quickly got back into their bodies and followed their "teacher".

"Oh," Rukia said, stopping just a few blocks from the school.

"Eh?" Ichigo said. "Something wrong Rukia?"

"No." She said as she threw something akin to a pez dispenser at the two Shinigami's-in-training. Ichigo caught it as his face spoke his confusion; Tatsuki was also confused, as it also showed on her face as well.

"What's this?" He asked for the both of them

Rukia said, "Gikongan, which is a medicine that forcibly removes the soul from a body and before you ask, Shinigami made it so that if we have to come to the human world in a Gigai, we don't act suspicious if a Hollow attacked, and we took care of it. If you swallow it, you can put in a fake soul and take out the real one, that way if a Hollow attacks when I'm not around…"

"It says Soul Candy, why?"

"Well that…is because the League of Women Shinigami complained that the name 'Gikongan' wasn't cute, so it was renamed."

"There's a women's society even in a place like Soul Society?" Tatsuki asked, surprised, even though she shouldn't have been.

"Yes, actually Soul Society is a lot like a regular town or country. Nothing much is different than here except for the fact that most people are dead." Rukia responded, before hearing Ichigo ask why it was duck-shaped. "Shut up. I wanted the most popular one, Chappy the rabbit as well!"

"Ichigo, leave her alone. She doesn't have to do this for us you know." Tatsuki said with a huff at her friend. Sometimes he could be so inconsiderate and tactless at times. This made her wonder why she wanted the rabbit one in the first place. "Ano…excuse me for asking, but why did you want the rabbit one?"

"It's because she loves everything that's rabbit-like Tatsuki. You get use to it sooner or later."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rukia yelled at Ichigo before putting her leg down on Ichigo's head. Before he could say anything else, Rukia took her leg off the boy and told the both of them to share the "candy".

Sighing at their looks of confusion, the senior Shinigami said, "Look, just pop one into your mouth and you'll understand immediately," she said as Ichigo did exactly that before passing the container to Tatsuki. As the pill went to his stomach, it started to activate and in no time, Ichigo's soul was forcibly pushed out of his body as it fell to the side, being held up by a wall on the side of the building. Shortly after, Tatsuki's body also spat out her soul. Rukia quickly caught her body for Tatsuki as it started to fall as well.

"Wow, it actually worked." Ichigo said amazed as Tatsuki just stood beside him with the same feeling.

"Surprised? Plus, a temporary soul has already entered the empty shell of your bodies and no one will notice that you two left." Rukia said, and as the words finished coming out of her lips, both of their bodies started to rise. As their bodies stood up, they rose to a base before they both said…

"It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kurosaki Ichigo/Arisawa Tatsuki. My favorite phrase is 'early to bed, early to rise.'"

"Impressive, isn't it?" Rukia asked before seeing two angry faces.

"That isn't impressive at all! It's nothing like us!" both Tatsuki and Ichigo yelled at Rukia, pointing at the souls that were temporarily taking over their bodies. Hearing the phone ring, the two of them groaned as Rukia closed the phone.

"Orders. Leave school to them and let's go to where the action is." She said before having to drag the two of them away, ignoring their complaints as she dragged them. Once they were out of their line of sight, 'Ichigo' smirked.

"This will be fun," while 'Tatsuki' grinned as well. "Besides, it isn't like they'll be long…" she added.

* * *

"Seems they are on the job." Ark said, finally nice and calm after he had his smoke.

"Awww," Comay pouted, "And I was hoping for a new playmate."

"Don't you have enough playmates at home Comay-chan?" Rai questioned. Comay could only raise an eyebrow at this.

"What do you mean Rai?" Comay asked.

"Well," She started, holding up her fingers. "Mr. Cuddles," She put one finger down. "Mrs. Snuggle Bunny," Another finger down. "Captain Fluffer." One more finger.

"Not true!" Comay yelled back, beet red in embarrassment, the other's chuckling behind her.

"Enough you two," Fuujin said, still somewhat chuckling. This caused the others to stop in the laughing as well. She then turned to Ark.

"Well Are-kun," She said from behind her book. "What now?" Ark only sighed at his companions.

"Get back to class and hope they come back in one piece." He shrugged. Nodding, the group of six started to walk back to class. As they walked down one of the halls, they noticed 'Ichigo' and 'Tatsuki' standing at the end of the hall. Ark and Nina could only blink in surprise.

"Well," Ark said, "Isn't that interesting, they are back already."

"Is that them Ark-sama?" Ryu asked to which both Nina and Ark nodded. Taking the initiative, Nina called them over.

"Oi!" She yelled. "Tatsuki, Ichigo! Over here." Seeing the two blink in confusion before nodding slightly, the duo slowly walked over to the group.

"Do we know you?" 'Tatsuki' asked to which Nina blinked in confusion.

"Of course you do." Nina blinked. "It's me? Nina Aisukaki?" 'Tatsuki' just blinked in confusion. "I sit behind you in class?" Nina said. To this, 'Tatsuki' just smiled weakly and nodded.

"Oh! Right! Nina!" 'Tatsuki' said. "Of course I remember you! Just joking around." Ark sighed in the background.

"Troublesome Wo-" He was about to say when he felt a soft hand against the right side of his face. Looking to where the hand came from, he saw it was coming from 'Tatsuki'.

"Tatsuki?" Ark asked, raising an eyebrow. She only smiled back at him and, if his eye wasn't deceiving him, it had a hint of seduction in it.

"Well hello there handsome." 'Tatsuki' said. "I don't believe we have been introduced before." This just made Ark raise his eyebrow higher.

"What do you mean Tatsuki? It's me? Ark Tenjin?" Ark said. "I sit in the back with Nina right behind you." This made 'Tatsuki' smile even more.

"Is that so?" She said, standing right in front of him. "How come I never noticed you have beautiful ruby eye before?"

"Tatsuki?" Ark said. "Are you feeling ok?" 'Tatsuki' only grinned.

"I am now that you are here you angelic hunk of a man." And with out warning, 'Tatsuki' leaned up and pressed her lips up against his. To say the least, Ark was shocked at the reaction. So shocked was he that the kiss lasted a good minute and a half without him even realizing it. It wasn't until he felt three powerful auras that shook him out of shock. The auras seemed to be made up of revenge, jealously, envy, and maybe even a hint of bloodlust was in them. It was at this time that 'Tatsuki' decided to end the kiss as she stepped back and gave him a wink.

"Well," 'Tatsuki' said, turning to 'Ichigo' "Let's get going before we are late to class." And with that, the duo turned and left for class but not before Ichigo could give Raijin a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Later?" Ark said, still in a daze.

"Oh Ark," Ark immediately jumped out of his daze, a bad feeling coming over him. Turning around slowly, he could have sworn that he saw an ice demon, a hell demon and a wind demon all glaring daggers at him.

"Umm yes?" He said weakly.

"What was that about huh?" Comay grinning too sweetly for his comfort.

"Well, she, ah, caught…."

"Did you _enjoy_ it?" Nina said, giving that same sickly grin.

"Well, umm, ya see, I can explain…"

"Oh yes, _Areku-kun_," Fuu said, putting her book away. "Please do example."

'Oh shit.' Ark thought. 'She put her book away.' He was now sweating bullets. It was then at this point, Rai and Ryu both thought the same thing.

'We are so not dying for him over this.' They thought. They then started to run down the hallway, hoping to avoid the chaos.

"Come back here you traitors!" Ark yelled as he saw Rai and Ryu run down the hallway. It was then that Ark heard cracking knuckles behind him. Turning around, he saw it was Fuu who cracked them, giving him a very creepy smile while her eye, though happy looking, had a very murderous look to it.

"We would like to _talk_ to you about something Areku-kun." It is said to this day that Ark's screams even haunt the halls of the school from the beating he received from the three enraged women……..

* * *

Tatsuki sighed as Ichigo took down another hollow. It has been an hour since the kaizō konpaku with their bodies but there was something in the back of her mind that didn't feel right. Then, a sudden shiver ran down her spine (it was ironically at this point that the fake Tatsuki kissed Ark). Shaking the feeling, she called over to Ichigo and Rukia.

"Oi!" She yelled. "I think we should head back. I got a bad feeling." Ichigo nodded as he picked up Rukia and the three headed back.

* * *

Ark just sighed as he limped over to the classroom, his one good eye now blacked, his body bruised, his clothes torn a little.

'Why me?' Ark thought, thinking about everything that happened to him today. 'Do they hate me or something up there and decided to get some pay back? I swear I have been good lately…….mostly.' When he got closer to the classroom, he heard a loud rumbling noise inside. Before he could get closer to see, the classroom door slid open and out ran Tatsuki and Ichigo, knocking him down, followed by……….Tatsuki and Ichigo in shinigami form?! Blinking to double check his vision only confirmed it. Feeling himself being picked up, he looked over his shoulder to see Ryu helping him up with Rai, Comay, Fuu and Nina standing next to him. Looking behind them, they could see the chaos that had happened. Desks were destroyed as the students were afraid for their life.

'Though,' Ark noticed. 'Chad and Inoue don't seem to be as afraid of what happened as the others.' He then turned to his friends. "What happened?" He asked, his usually carefree attuned gone.

"Well," Fuu started, her book out once more. "We saw Tatsuki and Ichigo hitting up on some students. That was when we saw them again appear in shinigami form. Judging by that, their bodies must have been taken over by modified souls. The two of them seemed to have battled a little as you have noticed and the fakes ran away with their bodies. Obviously as you saw, they are in hot pursuit of their bodies." Ark nodded at this.

"What shall we do about this Ark-sama?" Ryu asked. Ark just shrugged.

"None of our business. We can just sit here and wait for them." It was then at that moment that Ark's cell for started to ring. Looking to see who was calling, Ark sighed in frustration.

'I must have some really shitty karma today if he is calling me.' He thought as he answered the call…….

* * *

"Damn, where could they have gone? It was only for a second but we already lost them…us, whatever," Ichigo said as Tatsuki just looked around, hoping to find them somewhere around in the abandoned building. 

"Oh well…we should get back to looking." She said, turning around and seeing Ichigo explain about his image. Muttering, "Boys," she continued to watch the scene in earnest, laughing about Rukia's rhetorical question, but still understanding what he was going on about.

From what it seemed when they returned to the classroom, 'Tatsuki' had kissed Ark, thereby getting the beating of his life from Nina, Comay and Fuu and Ichigo kissed a new girl that reminded her of Chizuru. After that, Ichigo calmed down a bit, until Rukia had to go and say that kissing was like a form of greeting.

_Yeah, back in the Dark Ages…_ she thought to herself before hearing Ichigo mumble on. She also made a mental note to beat the shit out of her mod soul and to do a double beating out of Ichigo's. How dare his mod soul use Ichigo's body to kiss any other girl then her?! Tatsuki just shook her head at that thought.

'I did not just think that. I did not just think that. I did not just think that.' She repeated over and over in her head.

"What was that Ichigo? I didn't hear you." Rukia asked.

"You called him a modified soul. Just what is that?" He asked, and Tatsuki listened in as well, hoping to hear what Rukia was going to say.

"Once, in Soul Society, a plan called 'Spearhead' was brought up. Into the soul-less body of a dead person, a soul specialized for battle was injected and it was meant to be used as an Anti-Hollow soldier. It was a worthless plan. For that plan, what they developed was a battle-ready soul, which was designed to be able to endow some part of the body with superhuman strength, just by injecting it. That's what the modify soul is. You understand this so far, both of you, right?"

"Pretty much" Ichigo said as Tatsuki said the same thing, telling the senior shinigami to go on.

"Actually, because of the inhumanity of making dead bodies fight, the council rejected Spearhead and simultaneously, all the modified souls in development at the time were ordered to be scrapped. Who knew that there were two left…"

"Which means…what exactly?" Tatsuki asked as Rukia just looked at the pair. "I mean, they was created for Soul Society's convenience and erased for Soul Society's convenience?"

"That's one way of putting it."

"And you're satisfied with that?!" Ichigo asked before Rukia gave him a deadpan look.

"Soul Society has done a lot of things that could be questioned, but that isn't the point. Mod souls **have** to be scrapped. It is the law of Soul Society and their laws…they are laid down in order to protect you humans' souls. Now let's go. You two do want your bodies back, right?" She asked, dispelling the somber mood instantly. The two charges nodded as Rukia led them out of the building.

As they were running out of the building, the two shinigami ironically thought the same thing, 'I wonder, how do they feel after getting a hold of my body? Created against his/her will and ordered to death again against their will…somehow clinging to life and now they finally have a body, but yet, they still have to run. How must that feel?'

"Oi!" Looking down, they see the white patch of hair as well as a silvery blue patch standing next to each other. Jumping down, the two shinigami and ex-shinigami came face to face with Ark and a woman they have seen before, a book hiding her face.

"Ark?" Ichigo asked. "What are you doing here?" he just received a sigh as Ark took out a smoke and lit it.

"It be troublesome to explain it from the beginning," Ark started, taking a drag. "But basically, we are going to help you get your bodies back."

"We?" Ichigo and Tatsuki asked, looking between the two.

"Not just us of course." He then shook his head. "How rude." He then turned to his female companion. "Kyouran "Fuu" Fuujin, these are Kurosaki Ichigo and Arisawa Tatsuki."

"Pleasure," Fuu said from behind her book, giving Ichigo, Rukia and Tatsuki a handshake (though Tatsuki thought her hand shake was a little more strained then her other two companion's hand shakes).

"So what's your plan?" Ichigo asked, turning towards Ark. Ark merely grinned as took another drag of his cigarette.

* * *

While oblivious to the plan of demise for the both of them, the two mod-souls were jumping and running around the area, without a care in the world.

"This is fun, don't you agree 'Tatsuki'?" 'Ichigo' asked as he kept jumping around. "I mean everyone is looking at us in shock."

"You're right. I've never have so much fun in my life. Where should we go to next?" 'Tatsuki' asked as her companion just shrugged, showing that he didn't care where they were going as long as they didn't see the Shinigami who were out and trying to get their bodies back.

"Hm…how about we go this way?" Tatsuki asked as she pointed to a near-by school before 'Ichigo' could jump away again. For some reason, the way she pointed quickly led them to a junior high school. As she walked around the corner, she saw her partner's shinigami counterpart attack axe kick.

Before 'Tatsuki' could help him, her counterpart stopped her, by slamming a roundhouse right into her face. It wasn't strong enough to hurt, but long enough to have both 'Ichigo' and his shinigami counterpart started their own fight.

"Shit," She yelled as she saw Tatsuki standing in front of her. "Run for it!" She yelled to 'Ichigo' as she made a mad dash to get away. Nodding, he too soon followed after delivering a painful round house kick to Ichigo's mid section.

"Not this time." They heard as Ryu and Comay appeared in front of them. They were about to turn when Ark, Nina, Fuu, Rukia, and Rai appeared on both sides. Soon, the two runaway mod souls were surrounded as Ichigo and Tatsuki appeared from behind.

"Finally got you." Ichigo said as he gave his mod soul a right hook. The other people just sweatdropped at the action (besides Tatsuki who too was beating up her mod soul) as they watched Tatsuki and Ichigo beat up on their own bodies.

Coughing, Ark spoke. "Ya know, the more you beat up on them, the more you are going to hurt when you go back in." Instantly, both rookie shinigami stopped the "destruction of their evil mod souls".

"Bastard." Ichigo's Mod Soul spoke as he panted, bloody and bruised as well as his mod soul partner panting beside him. Ark just sighed as he took another drag.

"Might as well get this over with." He said as he took his lighter and turned the bottom of it towards the two mod souls, a skull in black flames printed on it. In a flash, he stamped both of their heads and out popped the two green candies. Nodding at the two pills, he turned to the others.

"Let's go, Taisho wanted these back." With a nod, Ark, Nina and the four new students started to walk away.

"Wait!" Ichigo and Tatsuki yelled at the same time. This caused the six to turn around, Ark having a raised eyebrow.

"Something you need?" He asked.

"What are you going to do with them?" Ichigo asked.

"Destroy them of course." Nina said. "What else do you think we would do with them?"

"But how could you?" Tatsuki almost yelled. "Aren't they living beings too?"

"It's not about what we want to do, it's the fact that we have to do this." Comay said as they started to walk away but Ark stayed rooted to the spot. Turning around, the others just look at their leader.

"Something wrong Are-kun?" Fuu asked from behind her book. Taking the smoke out from his mouth, he just sighed as he looked at the two shinigami.

"I just know I am going to regret this," He said before taking the two green pills and tossed them back to the two shinigami, leaving the other five wide eyed.

"Ark!" Nina yelled, "What are you doing?" she said as she was about to hit him side the head but before she even could, Ark stopped it with his hand. Ark just continued staring at the two shinigami before them.

"I understand what you two are saying, more deeply then will ever know." He then turned away, looking towards his friends. "Let's go, our work is done."

"B-b-b-b-b-but how can our work be done?!" Nina exploded at Ark as he walked ahead of the group. "You just gave away our objective."

"Let it go Nina," Fuu said softly from behind her book. "Ark is just being who he is." She then turned to the other three shinigami. "Please take good care of them." Fuu then turned to the others. "Let's go." With a nod, the small group walked off, leaving the three shinigami to their own thoughts…..

* * *

FireSamurai: So! Kon and his mod soul partner in crime have appeared! how will these two make Ichigo's and Tatsuki's life a living hell?! Also four new students have appeared! What are they doing hear and what is their connection to Ark and Nina?! 

DSAM: Questions receive answers but those answers spawn new questions. Stay tuned to see what we have next.

FireSamurai: Ja Ne!


	8. New People, New Rivals

FireSamurai: Ohayo minna! Hope everyone is having a happy holiday!

DASM: In light of the holidays, our gift to you is a new chapter!

FireSamurai: But before then of course is answering reviews.

DASM: All of them? Some of them were...

FireSamurai: fine...some of them

FireSamurai: Cyberweasel89: first off, we are grateful that you took such an interest in our story and are always looking forward to your reviews, Itachi-chan (blame DASM for that nickname. DASM: hey!) anywhoo, glad you liked the new characters and yes, Hade Hade, is a male love book. Since we based the OCS (well my OCS anyway) on Kakashi from naruto, we thought it would be funny of Fuujin (who is based off him, the other being Ark who is a combination of Kakashi and Shikamaru with twice the laziness!) to have a book just like his but since she was…..well a she, we didn't think Ichi Ichi would fit her. So Hade Hade was born! As for the author…….well that's just self explaintory…

Next Note: We would greatly appreciate it if you would draw our OCs. Obviously we can talk about this later. We are also curious as to what you have been up to seeing as we haven't heard from you in a while……

DASM: Kitsune6: If we just had Ichi/Tats fluff the story wouldn't be as good. We put some in this chapter for you though.

FireSamurai: On another note, I would like to ask that all reviewers to NOT ASK FOR FLUFF! Understand this. Yes, we want them to be together (which was why we started the story in the first place) but it is just not that easy. Ichigo is a stubborn as a mule as is Tatsuki. You can't just have fluff coming out the ying yang. Also try to remember that we are working with the original storyline of the series as well as trying to tweak things here and there. If we can put some nice Ichi/Tats fluff in there we will but it is hard considering we are trying to stay true to the storyline as well as our own story. So I please ask you not to ask us to write fluff for there will most likely not be a lot of it. Sorry for that rant everyone but I just felt I should get it out there.

DASM: (sweatdrops) anyway, Jetflash: As for our Ocs…..you will see how important they are later in the story and Urahara already gave Ichigo his form in the original. It would be redundant if he did that for Tatsuki as well.

FireSamurai: our last review answer goes to Hououza: Just read this chapter and find out

DASM: For the rest of our readers, thank you for your support. We have already broken the 13,400 mark. We hope all of you continue to support us in the future.

FireSamurai: On with the chapter and Happy Xmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and all those other holidays!

Disclaimer: We do not own bleach and if you did you guys would know what we would have done.

* * *

**Chapter 8 New People, New Rivals**

Ichigo sighed as the morning sun crept through his window. Looking over to his clock, he saw that it was already 6 am.

"Another restless night," He thought. So much has changed for the young spirit seeing man in the few months that he has met one Rukia Kuchiki. Never in his wildest dreams would he think of becoming a spirit, much less a shinigami, and fighting off evil spirits to boot. To top it all off, he somehow dragged Tatsuki, his childhood friend, in to this as well.

Tatsuki……..Ichigo could only sigh once more. So much has changed between them. At first, Ichigo didn't like Tatsuki following him into hollow battles. Now, normally, if it was a normal fight between Tatsuki and some other guy, he would easily bet on Tatsuki to win. Hell, she could probably beat him if they went all out. Now it's different. They weren't normal battles they were facing anymore. They were facing monsters from the deepest and darkness nightmares that only little children can imagine. Ichigo could not help but worry about her. True, she has improved, as has he, but there is always that one chance……Ichigo gripped his bed sheets tighter. He didn't want to think of the consequences that would occur if he couldn't protect her.

A thought then occurred to Ichigo. What was Tatsuki to him now? A friend? She was always that, even in their younger days. An ally? Well, of course she was. She was up there with him and Rukia fighting hollows. While all this was true, Ichigo couldn't find the right word for Tatsuki now. She would always be a friend and an ally, but for some reason, those words seemed to mean as if she was less to him then what she really was. Ichigo just sighed once more.

"All of this is to confusing." Ichigo mumbled as he shifted so he was facing the ceiling. Looking over to his clock, he noticed that half an hour had passed since he looked last.

"Better get up or Tats will be mad at me again." Ichigo mumbled as he slowly got up from his bed and did his morning routine. After getting dressed, grabbing something to eat and saying good morning to his family, Ichigo was out the door only to have Tatsuki and Rukia waiting for him.

"We have some manners of business to discuss," Rukia said.

"How are you...never mind. It is something I probably don't want to know." Ichigo replied as he looked at Rukia who held two green pills inside the palm of her hand. "Are those..."

"Yeah, Tatsuki and I both think it would be best to see what you think we should do with the two of them, especially after all the trouble they caused us."

Ichigo could only frown at the small little pills. What were they to do with the mod souls? Granted, they cause a lot of trouble but were Ichigo, Tatsuki or anyone for that matter to disagree with their actions if they were in the two mod soul's places? As Ichigo and Tatsuki contemplated this, his gaze turned to a trashcan off on the corner, two dolls hanging out of the open trash bin. A thought just occurred to Ichigo.

"So, Rukia," Ichigo started, still staring at the two dolls. "How do mod souls work exactly?"

"Well," Rukia started. "You inject the pill into a body without a soul, in other words, a dead body. They then take over the body."

"So in other words," Ichigo asked again. "The bodies just have to be soulless?" Rukia's response to that was a "hmm"

"I suppose so, but what does that have to do with anything?" Rukia asked finally. Ichigo didn't answer as he quickly walked over to the trash bin, took something out, and walked back to the two girls. In his hands were two dolls, a dark grey fox and a yellow lion plushy. The two girls could only raise an eyebrow at this.

"What are you thinking?" Tatsuki asked.

"Well," Ichigo started before taking the two pills in his hand. "Rukia said that the bodies just have to be soulless right?" to which the two nodded.

"Well, what is more soulless than a doll?" with that said, he took the soul candy and popped them into the two dolls' mouths. The three looked on with wonder. A few minutes passed before the dolls "eyes" blink, wondering where they were. Looking up, the two dolls screamed before they decided to attack.

"Give us back those bodies!" The wolf doll said as it attacked Tatsuki.

"Yeah give them back!" the lion doll said as it tried to "bite" Ichigo.

Sighing, both shinigami in training merely flicked them off their bodies, watching the dolls fly a short distance away. Today was going to be a long day for the two……...

* * *

Tatsuki groaned from the headache that assaulted her mind as she sat down in her chair. She would have to thank Kai (her mod soul) and Kon (Ichigo's mod soul) for the wonderful headache she had now. The only thing that would be stopping her from destroying the two would be: 

A. the guilt she would feel

B. because Rukia said they could be useful to get out of their bodies if they needed to in a flash,

And C: they were good for a laugh, at least Kai is.

Tatsuki chuckled weakly at the thought of those two when she saw three seniors walking over to Fuu, Nina and Comay who were sitting near Ark's desk. Apparently, the white haired smoker hadn't appeared, yet but that wasn't what bothered her. It was those three girls that bothered her for some reason. She didn't know why yet, but she would ask Kai soon, figuring that it was something she did. Feeling something bad was about to happen, she turned to Ichigo and tilted her head in the direction of the girls. Nodding, the two got up and walked closer to the small group.

"So baby," The senior said as he wrapped his arm around Fuu. "Why don't you and I get together eh?" Fuu merely sighed and turned another page.

"What about you hot cakes?" the second senior said as he wrapped an arm around Nina, who was shaking in rage, which caused him to smirk. "I bet you are shaking in happiness that such a hot stud like me chose you to be his girl."

"I'd go and help them, but I'm curious to see where this is going," both Ichigo and Tatsuki said at the same time. As the third senior tried seducing Comay; Rukia, Tatsuki and Ichigo suddenly felt lots of reiatsu heading their way. Looking around, they couldn't exactly pin point it, but they knew something big and powerful was coming. Ready to switch into their shinigami forms, Ichigo and Tatsuki waited, but just as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared in a flash.

"Yara yara," A voice said from behind them. Turning around, the three shinigami saw Ark sitting on a desk, his eye having a dark glint to it, as Ryu and Rai stood next to him. "Do we have a problem here boys?" the seniors just smirked as they looked at the white haired chain smoker.

"That all depends, Shiro-chan," the first senior mocked, cracking his fists. "Do you have a problem with us hitting on these girls?" Ark just grinned at the senior, which sent chills down their bodies. Jumping off the desk, Ark walked forward until he was face to face with the senior.

"I will say this once, and only once, so listen up." Ark said in a threatening manner, very unlike his usual self. "If you or your friends touch them again, I will make things very troublesome for you, the whole lot of you." After saying that, he turned away, walking back to Rai and Ryu. The lead senior was now shaking with rage.

"You asshole!" He yelled as he charged at Ark, ready to knock his head off.

"Well, that guy just screwed himself." Tatsuki heard Fuu mumble from behind her. Apparently, Nina, Comay and Fuu somehow got around the seniors and over to their small little group. Ark merely sighed and turned around to his assaulter. Tilting his head slightly, Ark merely stared at the upperclassman as his fist stopped mere inches from Ark's face.

"Baka," was all Ark said before flicking his finger against the senior's forehead, which to everyone's shock, shot the senor into the opposing wall. Ark then turned to the other two seniors.

"You two," Ark ordered. "Get him to the nurse. Tell her that some of your friend's pressure points were hit and that he should feel numb for a few days." When the seniors didn't move, in fear of their own health, Ark barked, "Get going, now!" with that said, the two seniors dashed out of room with their friend on their backs. Sighing with a mumble of troublesome, Ark took a cigarette out of his back pocket and lit it. Taking a drag, he looked around and noticed everyone staring at him.

Sweat dropping, he said, "What? Do I have something on my face?" This caused Fuu, Comay and Nina to chuckle slightly as their white haired friend took his seat. Soon, everyone went back to their own seats, though still kept an eye on the white haired student. As the class bell rang, and the traditional "Stand, Bow, Sit." The lesson was soon underway but for one student, the lesson was nothing compared to what happened earlier.

'What just happened there?' Tatsuki thought as she wrote down notes.

'One minute, the senior was going to knock his block off, and the next, he was imbedded in a wall with just a flick of his finger!?!' Tatsuki then took a moment to look back to stare at the white haired student, not noticing the three glares she was receiving. 'Just who is he?'

* * *

RING. RING. RING! The bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch. Getting up slowly, Ichigo turned to look for Tatsuki, figuring they could eat lunch together. Surprised to find an empty seat, he turned to Keigo, hoping he had caught where Tatsuki went. 

"Tatsuki? I think I saw her following Ark and that group he hangs out with." He answered. Thanking Keigo, he quickly walked out into the hallways, hoping to see where they could have gone. Ichigo caught a flash of black hair out of the corner of his eye. Quickly following it, Ichigo soon came to the roof of the school building. As he was about to open the door, he heard Tatsuki talk.

"Talk," He heard. If he were to guess, he would be thinking Ark would be raising his eyebrow at this point.

"Talk about what exactly?" Ark said.

"You know what." Tatsuki said. "What did you do to that senior?"

"So you are concerned about the senior?" Ichigo heard Fuujin, yeah; he believed that was her name. "I thought you liked that orange haired kid." At this, both Tatsuki and Ichigo blushed.

"Do not worry dear." He believed it was Raijin speaking this time. He then heard a grunt coming from Ark. Ichigo was guessing that Raijin was now glomping ark from behind. "Ark-kun didn't hurt him that bad. Maybe a sore back for a few weeks at the most, but that's all."

"Must you always do this to me?" Ark said, probably from under Rai.

"NO! This has nothing to do with the senior!" Tatsuki yelled. Ichigo could practically feel the glare Tatsuki was giving Ark. "It has to do with you! All of you." Looking in the little door window, Ichigo could see Tatsuki staring Ark down.

"How can you see shinigami and hollows? What is your connection to them? How do you have that freakish strength from back there? Just who the hell are you people?!?" Tatsuki yelled in his face. Ark just merely grinned as he got up.

"We are merely fallen ones, helping the world prepare for what is to come." With that said, Ark and his small group started to head for the door.

"Just answer me one thing." This made the small group stop. "Why did you give me that feather and turn me into a Shinigami?" At the mention of the feather, all but Ark froze at the mention of it. Sighing, Ark turned to Tatsuki with a sad smile.

"Because someone needs to keep that strawberry in line and who better then the girl that loves him?" With that said, the small group continued to the door, leaving Tatsuki to her thoughts, not noticing a concern orange haired that was there mere moments before………

* * *

After hearing that, Ichigo was confused about his feelings towards his friend; he definitely considered her one of his nikama, but love? As he headed back to class, he still had conflicting thoughts, and didn't notice when he bumped into a classmate of his. 

"Oomph," both said as the dark blue individual caused Ichigo to fall back and onto his tailbone, ruining his ego and pride for only half a second or so before he was back up.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings" Ichigo said as he picked himself off of the floor and dusted himself off.

"It's alright...Kurosaki Ichigo," the other boy said as he brushed himself off.

'How does he know my name?' Ichigo thought to himself as he glared at the other boy.

"You wondering how I knew your name, don't you Kurosaki-kun? It's simple really; I'm in the same class as you and Arisawa-chan are in. Now let's get going before we're late for the remainder of class."

"You don't have to tell me what to do," Ichigo said coldly towards him as he followed this new person towards the classroom with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. 'Who does this bastard think he is?'

* * *

They ran softly across the town in the moonlight night. As per the norm, Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Rukia were once again out on a hollow run. However, tonight was a little different then most. Tatsuki would sometimes look over to Ichigo while blushing before turning away. Ichigo would catch glimpses, sometimes blushing as well. 

'Damn that white haired chain smoker.' Ichigo thought. 'If he hadn't said those things…….'

Rukia, of course, was obvious to all of this or just didn't care. With a sudden leap, Rukia jumped down with the two shinigami behind her. Looking around, she sighed. Once more, there was no sign of a hollow.

"After all that," Ichigo groined. "There's no hollow."

"Shut up." Rukia said, pulling both their bodies out. "Just get back into your bodies." She then flipped open her phone, checking to make sure she had the right spot.

"You should seriously get that phone checked out." Tatsuki said before going back into her body. "I hate to be woken up in the middle of the night for a false alarm." Ichigo nodded in agreement, as they, both went back into their bodies.

"Are you saying that it's my fault?!" Rukia yelled at the two. "I just tell you two exactly what appears on the command receiver."

"So we are telling you to hurry up and get it fixed." Ichigo said.

"Believe me, I would love to." She responded.

"Dissension in the ranks?" A new voice spoke. The three turned towards the voice to find a young man around their age in a white trench coat like outfit with white pants, the moonlight shining off his glasses, and the face covered by darkness.

"What a disgrace." He said, coming into view. "Good evening, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, Arisawa-chan."

"Who are you?" Ichigo said. Tatsuki was also curious as to who this person was, as was Rukia. "How do you know our-"

"Kurosaki-kun," The newcomer said, cutting him off, "You and

Arisawa-chan can see ghosts, can't you?" Their bodies tensed at what he said. Who was this man? How did he know that they could see ghosts?

"What're you talking abo-" Ichigo started, still tensed. Tatsuki was also tense, but ready to fight the guy should he bring up trouble. The man ignored him and turned his head towards a different direction.

"A new Hollow has appeared." He stated.

"What?" Rukia said. It was then that her phone decided to answer her unspoken question as she started to receive orders. Her eyes widen in surprise as she looked down to the phone. "One really has appeared; we have orders."

"Which way?" Both Ichigo and Tatsuki asked. Before either could get an answer, the white man before them pointed in a direction, a weird cross hanging from his wrist showing as he did so.

"That way," He stated, "if you don't even know that much, how can you call yourselves shinigami?" Ichigo and Tatsuki couldn't help but let out a small growl at the man. Who was he? It was then at that moment, the cross on his wrist started to glow. Soon the glow started to get bigger, extending both up and down, forming a bow shape. He then pulled on the string, forming an arrow and letting it fly. The spiritual arrow flew, soaring quickly through the air. Before they knew it, the spirit arrow hit the hollow exactly when it appeared, completely destroying it. So shocked were they, it took Rukia a moment before she realized her phone was beeping once more.

"The signal disappeared…" Rukia said softly.

"What the hell are you?" Tatsuki asked.

"Ishida Uryuu," The white man said. "Quincy." He then stared into the eyes of the three shinigami. "And I hate shinigami."

"What the hell?" Ichigo whispered.

"Don't you understand?" Ishida said. "This is what I mean…….Kurosaki Ichigo, Arisawa Tatsuki. I hate you both." With that said, the white dressed

Quincy turned around and walked off, the night wrapping around him and making him disappear………

* * *

Ichigo grumbled as he walked down the hall of the school, Tatsuki right next to him. It was the next day and Ichigo (as well as Tatsuki) were still annoyed that………that……..that……..that jerk stole their marks. Not only that, but he also hurt their pride as shinigami. True, they never asked for it and hate midnight marks but still! Ichigo grumbled in annoyance 

"Damn, what's his face?" Ichigo grumbled. "Him and that stupid bow of his."

"Ishida." Tatsuki said. Ichigo just blinked in confusion.

"That's his name baka," Tatsuki said, a tick forming. "He said his name was Ishida Uryuu" Tatsuki then hit her forehead. Baka! How could she forget? Grabbing Ichigo's hand, she quickly dashed off to their classroom, dragging Ichigo behind her.

"Tatsuki! Stop already!" Ichigo yelled. Before he could say something else, Tatsuki placed her hand over his mouth and pointed to inside their classroom. There, sitting before them, was Ishida Uryuu, the Quincy from last night. Looking at each other, they both nodded and made a silent pack. They were going to keep a very close eye on this guy………..

* * *

It was late afternoon as the students started to file out of the school. Oneby one, students started to head to their own destinations. Two students, however, were on a mission. That mission being to find out what was the deal with the four-eyed freak. At least……that is what Ichigo said. Tatsuki just shook her head and went along with it, she too wondering what his deal was. They followed their target this way and that, up some streets and then back down some streets. It was then, while he was walking up a flight of stairs, that he stopped, turned around, and faced the duo. 

"Are you two going to follow me all the way home, Kurosaki Ichigo, Arisawa Tatsuki?" He asked.

"Tch, so you knew?" Ichigo responded. "When did you notice?"

"I knew since you two were spying on me from the classroom door." Ishida responded coolly.

"Oh?" Tatsuki asked. Now that was interesting. How could he know that they were spying on him when she was sure they hid themselves well?

"Pretty impressive." Ichigo said. "You got skills."

"It's because you always let your spirit power leak out like idiot."

Ishida responded. "You as well Arisawa." Now this got Tatsuki's attention. What is he talking about spirit power? She knew they were shinigami, but what did that have to do with spirit power? "Even a monkey would notice." Ishida said, breaking her from her thoughts. Tatsuki sighed and knew it was about to get ugly. No one insulted Ichigo without getting away unscathed.

"What did you say?!" Ichigo growled.

"Apparently, you two lack the ability to sense other people with high spirit power. As proof, you've never noticed my existence until today." Ishida said.

"Well, excuse me. I'm not good at remembering people's faces and stuff." Ichigo said to which Tatsuki could only giggle and nod. Ishida sighed.

"That's not what I mean." He said. "I noticed…..the day you transferred to our school…...the inordinate height of your spirit power." Ichigo and Tatsuki's eyes widen.

"And the fact that you acquired your shinigami powers around mid may. As well as Kuchiki Rukia's true identity. In addition, the fact that Arisawa acquired her powers a few months after." It was then snow-white strips appeared to surround Ishida, seemingly to bend and twirl when there was no wind.

"Spirit Threads?!" Ichigo and Tatsuki both said, shocked.

"Yes, spirit threads," Ishida said. "Spirit energy in the atmosphere condensed and visualized. And…" Ishida then disappeared and reappeared in front of both shinigami, his fist raised in front of them. It was then that red spirit particles started to form a spirit thread in his fist, the thread forming from both of the shinigami's bodies.

"This is…." Ichigo started.

"It's your spirit threads." Ishida said, holding the two red stripes tightly in his hands. With a twist of his hands, he ripped a portion of the threads off.

"Didn't you know? Death god's spirit threads have a different color." He then released his fist, the portion of the threads in his hands disbursing.

"Interesting," A new voice said from behind Ishida. "I will have to remember that in the future." Ishida smirked slightly at the voice and Tatsuki and Ichigo looked behind Ishida to see Ark and his friends standing behind him.

"Is this a private party or can anyone join?" Fuu asked with her nose still in one of those perverted books of hers.

"Why of course you can join," Ishida said. "But….." Ishida then made the spirit threads appear once more, then disappeared and reappeared in front of the small group, his hand holding five red spirit threads each connected to one of them and a dark crimson one connected to Ark. "Don't you think you want to switch into something more comfortable first?" Sighing, Ark took his lighter and hit his body, expelling his soul out of his body. There Ark stood as a shinigami………otherwise known as Tenkei.

* * *

FireSamurai: Alright, I want a show of hands of who knew Ark was Tenkei. (sees tons of hands pop up) (sweatdrops) 

DASM: You made it too obvious partner.

FireSamurai: (sighs) Hai hai…….ANYWAY, on to an important part. As you all know this is mainly a Tats/Ichi story. HOWEVER, there will be a side pairing of Ark with someone. That someone will be chosen by you! The readers!

DASM: Go Comay! Go Comay! Go Comay!

FireSamurai: (throws a bucket at his partner) Quiet you! (hides his go Fuujin stuff)

DASM: (coughs) Anyway, the person can be anyone of our OCs, anyone in the shinigami world or……

FireSamurai: If you want to really torture the chain smoker…..give him a harem!

DASM: Also note that if a male character wins, they will be changed into a female character for, while we have nothing against them, we will not write yaois.

Ark: (glares) you wouldn't dare…

DASM: Not up to us my friend…

Ark: Troublesome…

FireSamurai: So remember people! You determine how you want Ark to suffer! The poll will last till the end of the Soul Society Arc! So R&R.

DASM: This is DASM and FireSamurai signing out. Ja ne!


	9. Samurai, Soldier, Archer, Princess

FireSamurai: Finally! We have made our triumphant return!

Dragon and Sword Master: Several things have taken us from writing, but we have indeed returned and IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!

FireSamurai: Not much is needed to be said as not many people reviewed the last chapter but thank you to those who did (CyberWeasel89, Kitsune6, xSTALKERx, Hououza and gameroy.)

Dragon and Sword Master: Now then, before you come after us with pitchforks and other various sharp objects, we will let you get to the story, right Samurai?

FireSamurai: This one is particularly long so we all hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: We own Bleach (holds a bottle of said stuff) What?! you thought we owned the manga/anime?!

* * *

**Chapter 9 Samurai, Soldier, Archer, Princess**

"You?!" Tatsuki and Ichigo yelled at Ark as he stood there in all his shinigami glory, the Quincy smirking as he watched the scene unfold. Ark didn't say a word as one by one Ark took his lighter and removed the spirits of his five friends, each a shinigami, but each unique. One bye one, Ichigo and Tatsuki inspected the new shinigami. Fuujin's outfit was unique as her top was like that of a normal black kimono in appearance but was more like a sleeveless belly shirt in both design and size, black fingerless elbow gloves covering her arms, the kanji of wind mistress printed on the back of the fists, her pants being the same as normal shinigami. At her side, she held a five foot long nodaichi, the blade being four feet and the hilt being a foot itself. Next was Ryu who though wore normal shinigami clothing, wore an additional mini black cape (think of Ishida's cape during the soul society arc) with a hood that covered his hair, a black mask coving all but his eyes. A six foot long wooden staff lay diagonally across his back. After Ryu was Rai as she too had normal shinigami pants but it was her top that would make any red blooded male's eye burst out of their skull as she wore a tight black tube top, black arm warmers on her forearms. A whip was coiled around her waist as which was very fitting to her personality they thought. Being the smallest in the group, Comay had smaller than the usual attire on. However, instead of a pure white Obi tied around her waist, her sash was made of a pale robin-like blue as well as her right sleeve missing and her left sleeve longer then normal, coming down to about mid thigh. What scared them though was the sword she held. It was a European in style, a claymore if they remembered their history right, and was easily just as long and wide as Ichigo's own blade, which rested easily against on her right shoulder as she held it. Finally, Nina had the traditional shinigami form but was sleeveless and had a hood. At her waist were two daggers in an X formation, a third sword sitting across that. This led the two to believe that Ark and Nina were the two shinigami (Tenkei and Kou) that helped them when Grandfisher attacked at the graveyard.

"Now that that is out of the way," Ark said as he turned to his fellow classmates, his hands resting on his zanpaktou. "Shouldn't you explain why you have called us out here Quincy?" Ichigo and Tatsuki just started at Ark like he had a two heads.

"What do you mean by calling you out?" Ichigo asked. "Weren't you guys just following him like we were?" To this Nina shook her head.

"Not quite," She turned to look at Ishida. "This pansy," At this she pointed at Ishida, "Saw we were shinigami and wanted to challenge us to something." She then turned to Fuu. "Show them the letter."

"What letter?" Tatsuki asked as soon as she picked her jaw off the floor.

'We were near them the whole time...' she thought to herself. Tatsuki watched as Fuu moved over to her gigai, reached into her pocket and pulled out a white slip as well as her favorite book. Holding the slip up, Tatsuki saw it say Challenge to the six shinigami written down the piece of paper. Nodding, Tatsuki understood now. Ishida must have been on his way to meet these six for this challenge he was about to do and since he knew they were following him, he must of thought of taking two birds out with one stone. He let them follow him and waited till now to let them know they were following. Sneaky bastard. Looking over at Ichigo, she saw he already had Kon out and ready to go. Reaching into her bag, she took Kai out, reached into her stuffed wolf mouth, pulled out her pill and popped it into her mouth. Second later, both she and Ichigo stood there in their shinigami glory. Ishida just smirked.

"So the two lap dogs decided to come out and play? Shouldn't you ask your master first before you do anything?" He asked, as he shifted his hand in his pocket before taking out a small white tablet. Growling, Ichigo made the first move.

"Take that back you bastard!" Ichigo charged but was stopped when Ark appeared in front of him.

"Move." Ichigo ordered Ark but the white haired shinigami didn't say a word. Ishida merely continued his smirk.

"Still arguing among your ranks I see? Pity," Ishida then broke the small tablet in his hand, releasing small white particles into the air. "Makes it all the more easier for me." Ark merely raised an eyebrow at what the blue haired student did before realization hit him.

"Shit…" He muttered but it was too late as he already started to feel it. His covered eye started to pulse in pain as he grabbed it with his hand, wincing as he fell to one knee.

"Taicho!" His friends yelled as they appeared next to him. They turned to Ishida and in a flash; they appeared next to him, Ryu with his staff in Ishida back, Rai with her whip around his waist, Nina with her daggers at his throat and Comay under her, her claymore pointing upwards towards his throat as well, Nina and Comay's glare burning into his eyes. Grunting, Ark stood up, leaning against Fuu as she too glared at the Quincy. Ichigo and Tatsuki couldn't believe what they just saw. One moment they were just standing and the next, they were about to send Ishida through all nine levels of hell.

"What the hell did you just do Quincy?" Fuu hissed as she held their Taicho. Ishida merely continued to smile, remaining silent.

"Speak Quincy or I will show you what can be scarier then a hollow!" Nina yelled, pushing her daggers a little at his throat. It was then Ishida decided to speak.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about what will happen to this place rather then trying to get your revenge on me?" As he said that, black holes started to fill in the sky as one by one, hollows upon hollows decided to fill the sky. Ichigo and Tatsuki could only stare in awe as Ark and his friends had a grim look. Never before in their lives (well their shinigami lives at least) had Ichigo and Tatsuki seen that many hollows at once. Finally being sick of being stuck out of the loop, Tatsuki spoke.

"Someone needs to explain this or I'm going to kick someone's ass when this is done" She muttered as she took out her Zanpaktou and got into a stance. Without turning around, she yelled to Kai, "Go find Orihime and make sure she doesn't become collateral damage!" Ichigo also yelled back to Kon to find Yuzu and Karin and to make sure they were alright.

Tatsuki looked at Ichigo for a brief second with a raised eyebrow "and what about Isshin? As much as a perverted idiot he is, shouldn't you make sure he's alright as well?" Ichigo snorted at this. "The old man can take care of himself." was his only reply. Nodding in reply, the two mod souls dashed off on their assignments.

"Now is someone going to tell us what is going on or we just going to stand here all day with blades at each other's throats?" Tatsuki spoke. Ark could merely chuckle at this.

"As troublesome as this may sound, stand down you four." He said gaining shocked looks from the rest of his squad.

"But Taicho-" Nina started.

"We have more pressing matters at the moment Nina." Ark said, looking upward at the sky full of hollows. "And though it may seem troublesome now, we have to let that guy go so he can help clean up his mess." Ark then turned slightly to face Ichigo and Tatsuki. "What that dumb ass over there," To this Ark nodded to Ishida. "Used was some type of hollow bait to lure all these hollows here." He then turned back to Ishida. "But what he didn't count on was that he actually lured more then his intended targets because he forgot to factor in his and our spiritual powers there by causing all this."

"Hollow bait?" Ichigo asked, "Why would he use something as stupid as that?" Ark then took out a cartridge of cigarettes from his robes, took out a cig and lit it.

"Who knows," Ark shrugged. "Could be to do with what we shinigami did to his people years ago or," Ark's eye darken slightly at this. "He could have his own reasons." Ark then turned his sights to his squad, "Nina, Ryu, Rai and Comay, search the area. Help any spirit or person being attacked and remove the hollow. Check heavily populated areas. Take out any hollow you come across. Go now!"

"Hai Taicho!" with that the four shinigami disappeared. Ark then turned his attention to Ishida.

"Where do you think you are going teme?" Ichigo asked, sword ready to strike, Tatsuki right beside him. Ishida merely "hned," at them.

"Why to protect the people of course and essentially doing your job shinigami. If you can't keep up then step back and let a real pro do it." And with that, Ishida ran off to start his hollow hunt.

"Damn him!" Ichigo said as he too ran off to find Karin and Yuzu.

"Ichigo wait!" Tatsuki yelled after him as she chased him and with that, the great hollow hunt began.

* * *

'I hope that Tatsuki-chan can kick that idiot's ass.' Kai (in Tatsuki's body) thought as she dodged another swipe from a Hollow before punching it in the mask, having it crack before the hollow dissolved as she made her way to the school. In the courtyard, she noticed Chizuru brushing up some glass as some other students helped her.

'I wonder what caused the whole mess…' the redhead thought to herself as she grumbled about doing the work. "It's like instead of lecturing us, make the one who did it clean up!" Kai heard the redhead utter in annoyance. Kai ignored her as Tatsuki usually did, and looked over to where Orihime was.

Kai noticed Orihime looking at something in the distance. Following her point of view, she saw a hollow. She didn't know if the princess saw it or not but Kai hoped she didn't.

However, Kai's wishes went unanswered. "Actually, there's a …um…TV show that I want to watch, so let's quit cleaning and go home, 'kay?" Orihime asked the two of them and before they could do anything about it, Orihime was pushing the two of them out of the area.

'She must have seen it, this isn't good' Kai thought to herself. "Orihime, hold on a second, there was something I forgot!" Kai told Orihime but she didn't hear her and kept pushing her out.

Kai put most of her weight against the orange-haired girl. "Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime asked at the eruptible action.

"You go on ahead Orihime; I'll catch up with you." Kai said, but before she could move Orihime blocked her path once again, determined to protect her friend. Kai sighed at this and whispered to the girl, "Go. Just go. Run and don't look back, no matter what," the girl said before she went past the shocked girl. Tatsuki knew and she was going to fight.

"'Hime-san, are you sure you want to go home now? I'll stay with you if you want…," the redhead said in a suggestive manner but Orihime shook her head. "We should head home." Orihime said as Chizuru quickly agreed with the girl.

As Chizuru went towards her house, and Orihime turned around to go to her apartment, she looked back to where her first best friend was still at, thinking, _the first thing I thought was 'I wish I hadn't noticed'. The next thing I thought was 'I have to get away from here'. And the only thing I knew was…that thing is dangerous but if Tatsuki knew, why didn't she freak out as I did? _Steeling her courage, Orihime headed back towards the school.

Kai was disabling several of the students that were still in the area and were hit with the seeds that were on the Hollow's forehead. A few seconds later, they were back up and acted like zombies, all under her control.

_Damn, why did it have to be a Numb Chandelier of all types? _Kai thought to herself as she blocked another hit and retaliated with a knee to the gut and spinning to add power to her punch to the person that was behind her.

"_**Who is this new high source of Reiatsu? It smells so sweet…"**_The Numb Chandelier though as she turned around and saw a long orange-haired girl. **"Forget the girl and get the other one!" **The Hollow shouted as Kai watched in horror to see the students going after Orihime. Scared and shocked, Orihime stood there for a second and thinking, '_Not again_…'

Running past them, Kai dropkicked one of the males, got in front of Orihime, and settled down into a defensive stance, all in the span of two seconds before turning to her friend.

"Orihime, I told you not to worry. Don't worry about it, it makes no difference now." She said before turning back to the Hollow. "Hey, you big shit! You chose the wrong person to pick a fight with! There's a rule when it comes to Orihime and it goes like this: Anyone who makes Orihime cry, always get their asses whipped by me!" She yelled while mentally patting herself on the back. _That definitely sounded like something Tatsuki-chan would really say_.

**"Oh really?"** Numb Chandelier asked as all of her soldiers got back up. Going through an intricate act of decimation, Kai took care of them, yet again.

"Hmph, not one worthy fighter in this whole lot," she said before a female grabbed the collarbone and the nerve underneath it, and started to squeeze, causing Kai to scream in pain before she was shot with one of the Hollow's seeds.

**"How do you feel? The seed I just shot into your body will soon grow roots in your body and control it. In other words, that means your body will do what **_**I**_** want. Okay. Now, cry," **the hollow said, but Kai had other ideas.

"Shut up."

**"Huh?"**

"I said, shut up!" Looking at her with fierce eyes, Kai went on to say, "Let go of Orihime!"

"**Excuse me? Do you understand your situation? You've lost almost all control of your body," **the hollow said while raising a tentacle to her face, almost as if she was caressing Kai's face. "**Come on, how about it? Come on, come on—"**she started to say, but was interrupted by Kai biting down on the tentacle that was in front of her face, causing the hollow to scream in pain. **"What do you think you're doing, damn it?! Let go! I said **_**let**_** Go!! Let go this instant! I don't need to control you, DIE!" **Numb Chandelier said as she shot three piercing shots from her forehead.

Orihime brought her heel up into the groin of the guy that was holding her and as the guy let her go, Orihime ran over to Kai, shouting Tatsuki's name the whole time.

_'I'm sorry Tatsuki; I screwed up your body too much. I could not protect Orihime for you… I bet you would tell Orihime not to cry…' _She said as she lost consciousness over her body. However, her body stood up yet again, kicking Orihime in the solar plexus.

**"Ah, there we go. My darling little seed has finally taken root in your fragile human body."** The hollow stated as Kai looked on.

_'Damn it, I need to get back in control!'_ Kai thought to herself as she fought with the seeds power of influence, while her body walked towards the smaller girl, about to dish out more pain because of the seeds that invaded her body.

_'The reason I could feel safe again was due to Tatsuki-chan. It was because of her I could grow my hair out once again…' _ "Thank you Tatsuki-chan. Thank you for protecting me for until now. So…don't cry." Orihime said while hugging Tatsuki.

_'The seeds…their power is receding. Could it be her reiatsu coming out to protect her?'_

"Tatsuki-chan, this time…this time I'll protect you," Orihime said, and as she said this, her snowflake pendant started glowing before separating into six separate entities and surrounded her, kicking up a powerful gale, a tornado with Orihime and Tatsuki in the eye of the storm.

**"What?!" **was all that the hollow could say before she and the other students were blown away by the wind.

"Tatsuki-chan said, 'you chose the wrong person to pick a fight with.' But that's not it. What you failed to realize was that you chose the wrong person to hurt," and as the wind cleared, six pixie/fairy-type things were flying around her. "I won't forgive anyone who hurts Tatsuki-chan!" These fairies were still creating a small defense of wind around the two girls.

**"Wh-what the hell are you? Using some weird power…what is that?"**

"What, what are they?" Orihime asked in wonder as the fairies answered with a question of their own.

"You didn't even notice us?! No, you must have realized our existence. After all, we were always closest to you." One of them said as it landed on her shoulder. "Pleased to meet you Orihime-san," the female that was on her shoulder said in a gentle tone as the other fairies came down and stopped in front of her. Ignoring the others, the female fairy went on to explain what exactly they were. "We are the Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield. We were born to protect you. We are your power."

"Aahh, fairies! Flying fairies are talking to me!" Orihime exclaimed in pure confusion and excitement.

"Funny reaction, but we're not fairies. I told you. We're the power of your soul, all of us are a part of you and that we can only be seen by you. Although…someone like Kurosaki Ichigo could probably see us, too."

"Kurosaki-kun? Why?"

"After all, we were born because of him…"

"What?" As she asked the female sprite this question, a male dressed up like an assassin came and forced the female out of the way.

"You're taking forever! Hey woman, you don't need to understand who we are or where we came from."

"You're so pompous, even though you're so small…"

"Shut up! More importantly, learn how to control us right this minute!"

"How to…control you?"

"That's right."

Three new fairies of the six made themselves known at that time. One of the three who had a purple suit on and a manacle strapped over his right eye spoke for the three of them. "Our power is the power to put up a shield and reject things." Another one of the three, wearing a cybernetic mask and a brown muscle shirt spoke next, "What is required to do…that's in your _heart _and your _magic words_."

"Magic words?" Orihime asked, getting confused on all the information that she was receiving all at once.

"Wait! It's coming." The assassin called out, as she was still confused about what to do. The hollow was annoyed. It took that long just to get up from the wind that blew her to the ground and made her unbalanced. She hovered back to the ground and seemed to glare at the orange-haired girl.

**"What are you so damn confused about?! You, little girl…"** The hollow said, preparing to fire.

"Here we go Orihime-san, go on, call out our names! I am Hinagiku!" the one in the purple suit said.

"I'm Baigon!" The one with the mask stated as he got into position. The female in the three squad then went on and told Orihime her name as well, it being Lily." However, Orihime was barely able to hear their names, as she feared for her life. "Calm down and say the magic words. Repeat after me…Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily, hurry!"

As the hollow fired several shots, Orihime did what the female fairy asked. "Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily…"

"Santen Kesshun (Three Sacred Links Shield), I reject!" the three shouted as Orihime repeated what the trio just said as an orange triangle appeared in front of Tatsuki and Orihime.

**"What? But how…" **The hollow stated, as she was sure all the seeds had headed in her direction.

"You see, their power is to reject what's outside the shield. They put up a shield between you and the enemy and stop attacks aimed at you and…," the female said as she and another female of the fairies went over to Tatsuki's body, "our power is to stop what's inside the shield. We can return objects within a limited space to a state before they were destroyed. Go on and call our names. I am Shun'ou." The informative female said while her partner also gave her name, "and I'm Ayame."

"Shun'ou, Ayame..."

"Then say the magic words, Sōten Kisshun (Twin Sacred Return Shield)! I reject!" both of the females said as Orihime repeated them. A dome of energy emitted from the two and surrounded Tatsuki's body, healing it of damage that was done by the hollow.

"…Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime said, tears of joy starting to form in her eyes. She would have cried in relief if it weren't for the remaining member of the six flowers.

"Woman, you don't have time to cry! It's my turn next. My power is rejecting both sides of the shield. I put up a shield inside the enemy and reject their physical bonds. In other words…it means I split the enemy into halves," he said, as he got ready to fly towards the hollow. "Chant! My name is Tsubaki!"

"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun (Solitary Sacred Cutting Shield)! I reject!" Orihime said as the Hollow looked on in wonder at the incoming assassin. As energy gathered around him, he flew straight through the hollow and her mask, cutting the hollow straight down the middle.

**"Im…Impossible!"** She said before disappearing.

"I did it…" Orihime said before she collapsed on the ground. The six floated around her in concern for their master.

"My, oh my, I guess using all of us right away was too much…but, Orihime-san stuck it out really well." Shun'ou said before the six of them rose up and returned into there original form, the hairpins that Orihime received from her brother.

* * *

Sado was normally a well composed man. Having been in many fights in his life helping Ichigo, not many things could scare the bronze giant. Still, he could not shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen today. During his band practice, a cold chill kept running up and down his spine through all the whole session. When it ended, Sado couldn't help but look up towards the sky, wondering what was causing this uneasy feeling he was having.

"Hurry up, Chad!" One of his band member's yelled, knocking Sado out of his thoughts. "If we're late, lunchtime'll be over! I'll make you pay the difference!" That really caught Sado's attention seeing as he really didn't have the money.

"That's a problem." He responded.

"That's right. It _is _a problem. If you got it, then come on already!" Sado just nodded as he started to walk towards his band members when he felt something that made him stop. Looking upward to the sky, Sado saw something that was hard to describe. It was like a black cloud in the sky, but it wasn't like smoke or smog. No, this was something that felt evil and vile to the young high scholar. There was just something in the way it just simmered in the sky like it did.

'I've got a bad feeling.' Sado thought to himself. 'This feeling… is familiar…' And once again, before Sado could finish his thought, his band member jumped kicked him in the head. Of course, being the brick wall he was, Sado barely felt it.

"Get a move on, dammit!" His band member yelled as he fell on his ass after trying to kick Sado. "I have to string meals together with just minimum wage! My life's on the line here! I'm not carefree student like you who gets to eat just by being alive!"

"Gomen." Sado said. It was then that his band member grabbed him by his shirt and yelled.

""Irisk my life for a bowl of food"! Ok, repeat!"

"I-I risk my life for a bowl of food."

"If you got it, let's go." The band member said as he continued his rant. Suddenly, a big gust of wind blew out behind them, knocking up tons of dust. As the dust settled, Sado couldn't help but notice a giant see through shadow standing in the clearing. As the shadow seemed to straighten up, warnings seemed to have been flashing in Sado's mind as he pushed his band members away and diving out of the way himself as the shadow attacked him with a massive hand. Checking to see if his band mates were ok, Sado turned his attention back to the shadow creature. He saw the creature turn to him as he dodged another attack.

'It's after me?' He thought. Seeing the shadow turn to him, Sado made a decision. Nodding to himself, Sado sped away from his band mates.

'I don't know what that big thing is,' Sado thought as he ran. 'But if it's after me, the deal is simple. I'll just run…….to somewhere with no one to get caught in the fray.' It wasn't long before Sado stood before a small girl with black hair and a red cap.

"Hey, you're Ichi's friend…..parakeet dude." She said.

"Ichigo's sister…." Sado mumbled, wondering what to do.

"What's a grown up like you doing here by hims-" She didn't get to finish as Sado tackled her to the ground, just in time to shield her from the attack the shadow beast launched from behind him.

"W-What _is_ that.." Karin said. Sado then stood up as he stood between the beast and his friend's sister.

'It's stopped moving.' He thought as he watched it. Though he was tired, Sado wasn't sure if he could fight the beast one on one. Adding in that he also had to protect his friend's sister, he thought at best he could slow it down enough to make sure she got away.

'Is it checking us out? Or maybe…..' He thought. 'Damn, if I could just see it a little more clearly.'

"It's back." Sado turned around to see Karin staring at the beast. "What is it? What the heck is that?"

"You… can see that thing?" Sado asked in shock.

"Can I see it?" She responded, her voice shaking a little. "What are you talking about? I see it too clearly."

"You…" Sado said, not noticing the beast stalking up behind him, ready to strike.

"Old dude, behind you!" Karin yelled. Acting quickly, Sado grabbed Karin and jumped away, just barely avoiding the attack. Turning to see where the beast was, Sado was shocked to see the beast seemed to have disappeared.

"Where did it go?!"

"Where're you looking, old dude?! The right, run away!" Karin said from atop of his back. Sado turned just in time to dodge a massive fist (or what he assumed was a fist) coming his way. Nodding to himself, He decided it was best to run and make sure Karin was safe before he tried to face that thing.

"Hey, don't tell me you can't see that thing?" She said as he started to run.

"I can see it a little."

"In other words, you almost can't see it at all." Karin said. "No other choice then. Hold on to me. I'll see it for you." Sado chocked at what she suggested.

"Wha? U-Unacceptable!" Was his response as he ran away from the monster.

"It _is _acceptable!" She countered, turning her head to watch the monster. "Let me do it. This isn't my first time seeing a monster like that." A flash back of the night that fish monster appeared in Karin's mind.

"I've been wondering………" Karin confessed. "For a long time…..how those things are related to Ichi!"

"Ichigo?" Sado said in surprise. These monsters were connected to Ichigo?! How was that even possible?

"Your left side! Dodge!" Karin yelled without a moment to soon as the monster's fist barely missed them once more. It was then, in a moment of clarity, that Sado saw something massive and gray in front of him. Taking a chance, Chad slammed both of his fists into the giant gray arm. Unfortunately, the monster took his chance and slammed his other arm into the bronze giant. Shifting, Sado took most of the blow, covering Karin as they skidded across the ground.

"Dude, are you ok?" Karin said, looking up at Sado in worry. "Are you ok? Dude?" Moving out from under him, she tried to shake him awake. "Dude?" That was when Karin heard her name being called out from behind her. Turning around, she saw the other kid's she was playing with running towards her. She tried to think quickly as to get them away from the area.

"You dummies! Keep away!" She yelled. "Go Away!" this, sadly didn't go right with the other kids and had started and argument with them. As they argued, Karin saw the monster from before quickly snuck behind them, ready to strike. It was then that Karin made a hasty move and charged the boys, hoping to knock them out of the way. It was also at this moment that Sado started to wake up. Memories of his grandfather start stir in his mind as he saw Karin push the other children away. The words of his grandfather rang through his mind.

'The reason that big strong fists of yours exists know that first.'

'I know Abuelo,' Chad thought. 'That the reason my fists is big is not to hurt,' Sado slowly started to stand, his legs a little wobbly. 'That the reason my body is to protect.' Sado then turned to the giant monster, ready to fight. 'I know it all. I know all of it.' The monster roared as it started to raise its massive fist towards Sado. 'So, just a little…give me strength.' Sado then raised his fist and collided with the monster's. It was at that moment a bright light flash out and the monster shot out of the dust with one less arm. As the dust cleared, Sado stood, both his arms covered in black armor with red designs over them, at the top a black knob (A/N: sorry this is a bad description but think of Chad's arm when he goes to Hueco Mundo except on both arms).

"What's with his arms?" Karin whispered. It was then at that moment that the monster rose again. See this, Sado charged forward, raises his left fist and slamming it into the beast, a strong blast of energy shooting out and cleaved the beast in two. As the beast disintegrated into small spiritual particulars, Sado turned around, gave a thumbs up and fell over, falling into sweet darkness…..

* * *

Saying that Ichigo was mad would be an understatement as of right now. He and Tatsuki had been taking down countless Hollows and Ichigo was starting to worry. He hadn't seen either Rukia or Kon in the last couple of hours. 'Damnit, where is he?' he thought to himself as he blocked a claw and countered with another blade. Noticing the small absence of Hollows, he ran out of the way looking for either Rukia or Kon.

"Damn you Ishida!" Ichigo yelled out as he cleaved through another random hollow. "I'm going to kick your ass when this is all done!" he shouted out to no one in particular.

As Ichigo was complaining about the idiocy that Ishida did, Ishida was helping cleaning up his mess. Three arrows of pure reiatsu pierced a hollow, dissolving it into nothingness. The result of his hard work was showing as his fingers started to become bloody from pulling back on the bowstring so many times.

_Damn. I'm starting to lose my ability to kill them with a single attack, but what's going on? Is this what that smoking shinigami was talking about?_ Ishida asked himself before sighing and pulling the string back another time. _It doesn't matter, that stuff is irrelevant anyways._ He thought to himself before letting the arrow of light go, a picture of his grandfather and teacher heading to the front of his mind. "Sensei, no matter what, I will avenge you for sure!" He shouted before forming and firing another arrow and heading off into the distance.

"Way of Destruction no. 4! Byakurai!" Rukia shouted as she fired a bolt of white lightning at the worm-like Hollow batted it away, Rukia jumping out of the way of the reflected shot. "Damn! This hollow is an utter weakling and yet…I can't even defeat one as weak as this. Does this mean that my power hasn't recovered in the slightest?!" She muttered to herself before formulating another plan of attack. However, before she could do anything about it, she started hearing footsteps in the distant. She saw it jump in the air and kick its mask, stunning it and moving it away from Rukia. "Ichigo?" was the question that passed through her lips.

After kicking the hollow away, Ichigo turned back to Rukia and glomped her, "I missed you Nee-san!" He shouted as he made her fall to the ground.

"Damn it, you're Kon," she said with a tick mark forming over her temple before forcing his head to move up, but Kon enjoyed it all the same. "This isn't the time to be talking like an idiot!" Rukia yelled as she tried getting out of Kon's grasp. "Although, the fact that you're in Ichigo's body means he must have changed into a shinigami, Tatsuki as well."

"Actually, Nee-san, behind you…" Kon said as Rukia turned her neck in an attempt to see what Kon was talking about.

"Good. It looks like you two are all right. Kuchiki Rukia, this is the first time we've talked one on one." Ishida spoke as Kon was annoyed at not even being acknowledged. Taking that time to kick Kon off her, Rukia stood up.

"I see. So, this is all your doing, isn't it?" Rukia asked, accusing him of everything that was going on.

"Without a doubt. This is a fight between the Shinigami and I."

"What?"

Not hearing the question, Ishida went on. "However, I don't intend to let a single person in this town die. Even if Kurosaki Ichigo runs out of strength, if Arisawa Tatsuki runs out of spirit, I will risk my life to protect the people of this town.

"While they…while the shinigami watch…I will protect everything from the hollows. If I cannot, then there is no meaning to this fight." He finished as Rukia and Kon (getting up while Ishida was giving them his monotone) looked on, as Rukia just uttered what was going through their minds. "What in the…" She started saying as they both felt the hollow reappear behind them. Ishida held out his arm and willed his spirit bow to life. However, before he could fire an arrow, the hollow split in two, a shinigami jumped over and above the three people, as Ishida smirked as a raven-haired warrior came down from her jump.

Not even turning around, Tatsuki said, "I finally found you…," turning around to face the archer, she finished what she was saying, "you bastard!" gripping her zanpaktou, Ishida's smirk never left his face.

"Arisawa…" was all that Ishida said, both of them staring the other down.

* * *

"Taisho, what happened to them?" Ryu asked as he saw the manager of the store bring in two of Ichigo's friends, Inoue Orihime and Yasutora Sado, otherwise known as Chad.

"They're all right…just doing some soul searching is all." He said as before opening the door and placing them into two futons. Closing the door, he turned back to Ryu.

"How's Ark doing?"

"He's stable at least, but the Quincy really shook his mental barriers when he used that bait…" Ryu said, anger starting to taint his voice.

"Remember Ryu, he will become important later on, so while you guys can threaten him all you like, you can't kill him."

"Yes Taishou" he said as he felt a small pulse of energy coming from Ark. Heading back into the room, Ryu found that the pulse of energy was coming from a white and dull grey blade was leaning towards Ark. Glaring at the blade, Ryu saw it starting slowly die down, but he calmed down when he realized that Ark's bokken was starting to reign the pulsating power back in with its own black light.

Sighing he looked over his captain again. This was the third time it happened… Ryu thought to himself as he heard the two humans starting to wake up and converse with each other.

He laughed quietly as he heard the girl ask about all the information that went through both of their minds. _It would be a lot to take in at once…_Ryu thought to himself as he listened in on the conversation.

"Hold on a second there."

"Yeah, Shinigami and Hollows, you can't suddenly tell us that and expect us to understand everything…"

"Then you deny the fact that both of you were recently attacked?"

"But that's…"

"Even as we speak, Kurosaki Ichigo and Arisawa Tatsuki are fighting the Hollows as Shinigami and you two were affected by the combination of Ichigo and another shinigami's extraordinary reiatsu. That's how it is but…I will open the door for you. Whether or not you pass through it is up to each of you."

At this, Ryu moved away from the door as Tessai opened it. "The 'sky crests' have begun converging."

"Preparations?"

"Complete"

"Then let's go," Kisuke started as he headed towards the door. Turning back to the two guests, he asked, "Will you come along? I will show you what is beyond the door. Ryu, I take it that you'll keep an eye on my shop and your friend, correct?" He asked the young warrior as he nodded his head.

* * *

"So, you finally found me. Big deal," Ishida said as he smirked, infuriating Tatsuki even more. However, he noticed a hollow starting to form behind her. Ishida prepared his bow and fired an arrow, but to his horror, he saw Tatsuki move in front of the Hollow and before he could do anything, she destroyed the spirit arrow. Before she could turn and hit the hollow, the hollow disappeared as a huge zanpaktou came through, completely cutting it in half.

"Baka, you could have killed me too! You should have let me deal with the hollow." Tatsuki said to a grinning Ichigo. _Not bad for my knight…_she shakes her head at that thought.

"I finally found you three, and Ishida-teme's with you as well, perfect." Ichigo stated as he smirked, "so…you _do_ understand. This fight is between you and us. So…quit talking about who took down more hollows! Let's settle it between the three of us!" Tatsuki just sighed at the big idiot making a bigger fool out of himself but did nothing. "Say something, Ishida!"

At this time, Kon decided to interrupt. "Hey Ichigo!"

"I'm busy!"

"The sky…look up at the sky," Kon finished and both the Quincy and the three shinigami looked up to see a great snowflake crack starting to form up in the sky and all hollows starting to head towards the great crack in the sky.

'What the hell is that?" Tatsuki asked what was on everyone's mind.

"The Hollows…are gathering"

"No shit Sherlock," Tatsuki said, glaring at the archer. Before anyone else could say or do anything, the Quincy ran towards some steps that were nearby. Getting up halfway, Tatsuki shouted for him not to do anything rash but it fell on deaf ears, or so she assumed.

"Are you two scared? If you're so scared, then observe from there. Victory will be mine!" He shouted at them before heading up the rest of the stairs. Once he got to the top, he activated his bow and condensed the reiatsu around him to create a very dense arrow. Upon firing it, it spread out and hit several hollows, destroying them.

"Down here Hollows! The last Quincy, Ishida Uryuu will stand and face you!"

_The last Quincy?_ Both Tatsuki and Ichigo thought as they heard the news and looked towards the senior shinigami.

"They went extinct 200 years ago…the Quincys. Actually, to be more precise, they were exterminated by the Shinigami." She started to say before being interrupted by Ichigo.

"Like the mod souls," Ichigo pointed out as Tatsuki agreed with him

"Sadly, yes. Now where was I? Oh, right. Even for the Shinigami, it was a bitterly hard decision. The shinigami had to exterminate the Qunicys in order to prevent the collapse of this world. In Soul Society, there's a lay habit of referring Shinigami to 'balancers', or in other words, regulators."

"Regulators?"

"Think of it like this; the world is an hourglass and on one side, is this world, the human world and on the other half is the Soul Society, which are constantly exchanging and thus, the two worlds have a soul balance. This is what shinigamis do; they regulate this balance, but then…then the Qunicys appeared. The Quincys completely destroy Hollows. In other words, that means the souls sent to the human world don't come back to Soul Society, creating a "crack" in the hourglass. If left alone, the balance of the two worlds would crumble and eventually cause the end of the world. Talks between the Shinigami and Quincys were held innumerable times. However, the Quincys stubbornly refused to address the complaints and so, the decision to annihilate the Quincys was handed down. Now let me ask you something. Do _you_ think that to be the Shinigami's arrogance?"

Ichigo and Tatsuki thought over the question that Rukia asked them as they ran towards Ishida's position as they saw Ishida fighting off the swarm of Hollows, their numbers not dwindling in the slightest.

"Sensei…" Ishida mumbled before he heard Ichigo yelling his name, breaking him out of his thoughts from the past as he saw many Hollows being, for a lack of a better term, mowed down by Ichigo and Tatsuki. Ishida sweat dropped at the scene unfolding, 'those two…so reckless' he thought as he saw the two shinigami standing on a pile of Hollows. After the reckless run through the combined foe, Tatsuki and Ichigo were standing on top of the pile, both of them hefting their blades over their shoulder.

"Booyah!" Tatsuki yelled out as Ichigo sighed in amusement. Before anything else could happen, Ichigo got serious. "We heard your reason for fighting! Whether the Shinigami were right, or the Quincys were right, we don't know about all that, but it doesn't mean we're for one side or another, but there is one thing I do know. Your way is…" Ichigo started but Ishida cut him off.

"That's ancient history. I have no interest in the extermination 200 years ago. I'd only heard about that from Sensei's stories. In fact, as far as that extermination story goes…I even felt the Shinigamis' side was more just…that is, until my sensei died right before my eyes.

_Flashback_

"Rather…I think the Quincys were wrong for turning a deaf ear to the Shinigamis' words." An old man said as he was talking to his grandson, the old man telling him stories about the past.

"Why? It was the _Quincys_ who were annihilated." The young boy replied as the old man just chuckled. "That's right, and a lot of people did die. However, once a person is dead, thinking about who was right and who was wrong is meaningless. What we must think about is how we can make sure that a situation such as that never happens again, only that. Be it human or Shinigami, seeing a sad face is unbearable to an old man like me."

At this, the young boy just gasped in shock as he stared at his grandfather.

_End Flashback_

"He was a kind man who didn't hate or despise anyone," Ishida said as he fired another arrow, hitting a zebra Hollow and three more took its place, "and as the last Quincy, Sensei was under the strict observation of the Shinigami. Yet…yet he still kept appealing to the Shinigami to combine our strength and work together, but the answer was always the same: 'Don't interfere with our work.' Then, on that day, five huge Hollows appeared."

_Flashback_

The old man stood defiantly in front of the hollows, while the young boy was standing behind a tree, too scared to move and just watched as his grandfather took on the hollows to the best of his abilities until help arrived, or so the boy hoped.

"However, when the Shinigami finally showed up, it was _two whole hours_ after sensei had begun fighting and by then it was too late.

_End flashback_

If they had recognized his power, his ideas, they would have come to help sooner. Sensei wouldn't have had to die! Can you understand Arisawa Tatsuki, Kurosaki Ichigo? I _must _prove the power of the Quincys before the eyes of the Shinigami no matter what! I know our ideas are opposite. If you guys think I'm mistaken, then stand back and watch." Ishida said as he turned around to see two hollows right in front of him. Before he could do anything to defend himself, Ichigo and Tatsuki sprung towards the two hollows and destroyed them, saving the archer and then turned around before being simultaneously punched and kicked by the duo.

"When are you going to shut up?!" both yelled at the Quincy before he picked himself up from the attack to his person. As he did so, he retorted, "What are you doing?!"

"It makes no sense!" Ichigo started yelling as Tatsuki agreed with him. Before he could ask what the orange-haired idiot meant, Tatsuki spoke for Ichigo. "Basically, your sensei's hope _wasn't_ to make the Shinigami recognize the Quincys power, but to combine our powers and fight together. In that case," she said before Ichigo grabbed his throat and pulled him right up near to his, "if you don't do that now, when the hell are you going to?!" Letting him go, Ichigo moved the archer to where he was behind Tatsuki and Ichigo, his back meeting theirs. "To hell with _totally opposite_, in a fight against a ton of enemies, side by side and back to back gets the job done much better."

Ishida was slaying many hollows with his arrows while Tatsuki and Ichigo were doing the same with their blades. "That's it."

"Don't get the wrong idea. If I didn't shoot then I would have been killed."

"That's just fine. In these situations, it's either kill or be killed, but alone it will be hard. Therefore, we have no choice. That's more than good enough for a reason to combine our strength. Only…we want to defeat the Hollows. Why? My mom was killed by a hollow." At this, Ishida gasped in surprise. Either not hearing it or not caring, Ichigo continued. "Is that the reason I want to defeat Hollows? If someone asked me that, of course, my answer would be yes, but…how should I say it? I don't want others to become like me. After my mom was killed, my pop and sisters all suffered a lot. I feel like there's no need for any more of that."

Two hollows took that time to try to attack Ichigo, but before anything could happen, Tatsuki's blade sliced the two of them. Any other time, she would reprimand Ichigo for lowering his guard, but she was willing to make an exception this one time.

"I don't want to see anymore of that, if at all possible, I'd like to see no more sorrow...that's what I _feel_." At this, Ishida realized that this is what his sensei was trying to say. 'He's just like sensei…' Ishida thought to himself as he turned towards the shinigami who was talking.

"I can't talk big about protecting everyone in the world or nothin' like that, but…but I'm not so conservative to say it's good enough to protect only those I can hold in my arms either. I want to protect a _mountain _of people! This duel that you thought up of is putting that mountain of people _in the crossfire_. Give me a freaking break! However, now isn't the time for saying things like that. We've no choice **but **to team up! What do you have to say?" Ichigo asked, waiting to hear from the archer.

"Man oh man. I was wondering when _you _were going to shut up, but I understand completely," he said before drawing back on the bowstring, an arrow starting to form, "if we don't both survive this, we won't have each other to beat up."

"Hell yeah," Ichigo shouted before racing past Ishida on his right side, sword drawn and posed for attacking.

"Damn straight," Tatsuki added as she too raced past the archer on the other side, a small grin on her face as she attacked the cannon fodder without mercy. Several slashes and multiple hollows died quickly. However, the numbers didn't lessen in any form. As the three of them went back to back once again, Ishida looked up and was surprised as to what was in the sky, "Kurosaki, Arisawa…the sky."

"The sky?" Ichigo asked as Ishida nodded and when the shinigami looked up, they were startled to see the hole in the sky. "What is that?" Ichigo asked after seeing something moving in the darkness, two skeletal hands coming out and gripping the breaking sky.

* * *

Rukia was looking at the scene that was unfolding in shock. She knew exactly what was coming out through the hole in the sky. "That's a…" she started to say before Kon interrupted her.

"What the heck is that?"

"It's a Menos."

"Menos?"

"It's a gigantic hollow said to be born when hundreds of hollows pile atop of each other and intermingle. However, I've never seen one except in a textbook illustration. Menos Grande…It's impossible for such a thing to come out. This is the Royal Special Affairs department's jurisdiction. It's not something that a single shinigami could fight, not even two could scratch it.

"It's huge…" was all that Ichigo could say as Tatsuki bit her tongue from saying her usual retort.

"That bait…it _couldn't_ have caused _this_…" Ishida said, startled by the immense size of it.

"Didn't Ark say something about you not thinking about the mass effect of reiatsu between himself and Ichigo?" Tatsuki replied, putting in her own two cents.

While they were talking, the three of them didn't realize the fact that the hollows were starting to surround them. Several of them started to growl before all three turned towards the sound and noticed the situation, all three of them summing it up in one word: "shit." However, before any of the hollows could reach the three, several bolts of energy hit the masks of the attacking hollows, instantly breaking them. When the smoke cleared from all the bullets, a little girl with raven hair in pigtails stood with a weapon in bandages, several bullet holes coming out of it. "Hello" was all that she said before a loud voice came through the group of warriors.

"JINTA HOMERUN!" a young boy with red hair yelled out as he swung a metal baseball bat, clearing out several hollows just like Ichigo and Tatsuki did a little while ago. After that, they noticed a middle aged man that Ichigo thought could be related to Chad and smashed an open palm through a hollow's mask, breaking through it before some type of liquid came out of its back.

As all of this happened, a man wearing a green and white hat, an overcoat with a green kimono underneath, and while holding his fan, he shouted, "Kurosaki-san, we came to save you." This worried Ichigo a little because he was sure he didn't know who this man was. Before Ichigo could ask who he was, the man spoke again. "I know you don't know me yet, but you can trust me that you and I have several mutual friends. If you must know who I am after all of this, you can ask the young Kuchiki," he said before becoming serious. "We'll take care of the small fry. Therefore, Kurosaki-san, Arisawa-san, you two can concentrate on fighting _him_," and at this, he pointed to the giant hollow that was emerging from the sky. Go on now. There's no time for flapping your gums." He said, as the four of them noticed that the huge hollow was looking at them.

"How insanely huge…" Ishida started to say, ignoring the sigh coming from Tatsuki. She wasn't even going to bother now about the obvious remarks. What really pissed her off was what Ichigo said and did next.

"There's no point in tryin' to think how to fight a monster like that," he grinned as he ignored both Tatsuki's and Ishida's question of, "what?" and raised his sword, "Things like that…you just slice and dice and cut it down the best you can! Here we go!" he shouted before rushing forth, the two following after him at the same pace, not hearing their complaints.

While Ichigo was running, he didn't see Rukia or Kon come up the stairs and into the field, nor did he hear what she was saying. "Ichigo, stop! It's too powerful for you!" After this, the young man appeared beside Rukia. "Urahara, are you trying to get Ichigo killed?!" She yelled before Urahara raised two fingers and without any words being said, Rukia felt a power settle over her and she fell to the ground, realization setting in as to what just happened. _This is a binding spell…_

"To answer your question of trying to get Ichigo killed, my answer is hardly. Still though, please just watch this quietly. This fight is a necessary one…for both you **and** him."

* * *

Charging head on into battle was nothing new for Ichigo, especially when he jumped and slashed the foot of the giant hollow. What Ichigo didn't expect though was for the attack not to phase the giant beast at all and to make matters worse, Ichigo was flung across the field they were on as the hollow moved its foot forward. Ichigo landed on the pavement and bounced a few times before coming to a stop right before Ishida and Tatsuki.

"Kurosaki! Damn it, I told you so you idiot." He said before firing it at the Hollow's mask, getting the same result that Ichigo did, just without the damage to himself. "Kurosaki, can you stand?"

"Sure, I'm actually okay," Ichigo said as a small wound opened above his left eye, blood coming out of the wound.

"You baka! You could have gotten killed!" Tatsuki yelled at him after she heard what he said, angry at his recklessness.

"More importantly, what the hell were you thinking? How did you intend to beat it with that attack?" Ishida asked the orange-haired shinigami, who would make himself look even more stupid with his answer.

"Well…I thought if I cut it away piece by piece from the feet up; the head would come down eventually."

"Seriously…I don't know why I put up with you sometimes Ichigo." Tatsuki retorted before Ishida reached down and touched his blade. The second that his hand made contact with Ichigo's blade, his bow grew enormously.

'Is this…the effects of Kurosaki's power?' Ishida thought to himself as he heard snippets of what Ichigo was saying before he gained his attention. "Kurosaki!" as Ichigo looked at the bow, he was startled to see it that huge.

"What's with that bow?! Why's it so huge?!"

"Just listen! We might be able to beat this thing. Just follow my directions…" he said as Ichigo grunted.

* * *

As the giant hollow walked out of the hole it created, two people were watching from afar, so as not to be collateral damage. These two people were Orihime Inoue and Chad Yasutora.

"Can you see Ishida with Ichigo and Tatsuki next to him?" Chad asked as Orihime nodded.

"Yeah." 'Please watch from here' he said…'I wonder; did he mean watch and then choose…is that what he meant? The path we will walk will be determined by that' Orihime thought to herself as she looked onwards.

"Orihime, are you alright?" Chad asked, getting the girl's attention.

"I'm fine, just thinking about past events…to what brought us here. Sado-kun," she said, getting the attention of the bronze giant, "what do you think we should do?" She asked, fear laced across her voice. Sometimes she wished that she had Tatsuki's courage.

Ryu was watching the two from afar. Urahara knew that while it was probably impossible for any hollows to attack the two now that the final phrases of the fight were going on, he didn't want to risk the fact that they were going to come to harm because they weren't protected or activate their spiritual weapons. His captain would claim it troublesome, but a necessary troublesome thing to do. Ryu figured that his captain would not want to deal with an angry dragon and her protector.

* * *

"Okay, now we can fight!" Ishida said as he had Ichigo's zanpaktou tied to his head with a white cloth as Ichigo was holding onto his blade, looking dumbfounded at this.

"You're stupid, aren't you?" Tatsuki asked after Ichigo took his hands off the hilt of his zanpaktou. Ishida developed a tick mark above his head as he swung around to face the young dragon, almost hitting him with his own blade.

"What?! Quit complaining. Besides, I don't see you coming up with anything," he said as he turned back to Ichigo, "If you release your spirit power at full blast in this pose, I should be able to shoot an absurdly powerful arrow. Don't let your incredible spirit power ooze uselessly!" Ishida shouted, before kneeling back down on one leg.

"Dude…don't ever say 'ooze' again." Ichigo deadpanned as Ishida just continued.

"Come on, control your spirit power and increase it to maximum output!" Ishida shouted, as Ichigo just looked clueless.

"How?"

"What?! You can't?!" Ishida shouted, bringing his head, and consequently Ichigo's blade straight above his head. "Then how have you fought Hollows up until now?" Ishida asked as Ichigo just shrugged his shoulders.

"Spur of the moment?"

Ishida repeated this in a dazed manner, not believing him in the slightest. "Of all the nonsensical…"

"I don't really know about that stuff! If my spirit power is really so badass, then maybe it's _always_ on full blast!" Ichigo said, before all three looked towards the Menos Grande as it was preparing something. A small sphere of red energy started to form in the hollow's mouth.

"…A Cero. That beast…it intends to fire a Cero _here_?! Run, quickly! If that hits you, there won't be even an atom left!" Rukia shouted but no one heard her, except for Kon and Urahara, the bastard who put her in this spell in the first place.

Ichigo just looked at the thing with a look of shock in his eyes. Seeing what it was about to do, Ichigo made a split-second decision and grabbed his blade off Ishida's head and charged towards the beast.

"Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled out as she drew her blade and ran off, or at least tried. Before she could chase after her idiotic friend, Ishida grabbed her shoulder. Looking back at the archer with a glare that could level even a hollow, Ishida just shook his head. "Either let go of me or face my wrath. He needs my help!" Tatsuki shouted in anguish and a panicked voice as she struggled against Ishida.

"You'd get yourself killed too," was all that he said and as he let go of her shoulder, tears threatened to spill. 'If he dies, I would never get the chance to tell him…' she thought to herself as she watched the events happen, praying to anyone who would listen to keep Ichigo alive.

As he rushed towards the giant hollow, the beam disappeared for only a fraction of a second before the Menos Grande opened its mouth and fired a powerful red and black beam straight at Ichigo. Ichigo quickly got his blade up over his head as the massive beam of energy came crashing down on his head. Bracing the blade with both hands, he held the sword as a medium between the beam and himself, creating a powerful shockwave that affected Ishida and Tatsuki.

"What?! What is this bizarre spirit force? Kurosaki's power is expanding?" Ishida asked himself before he remembered what Ichigo said a few minutes before, the fact that maybe his spirit energy was always at full blast. 'That's it, but then again, that couldn't be true. No matter how high one's spirit power becomes, if they leave that tap on all the time, their spirit power should dry up right away. The fact that he can't control his spirit power…means that he has too much of it; if you turned the tap and an unexpected amount of water came out, most people would be startled and turn the water off. If he's like that too…If his usual abilities are in the _off_ mode…and if, by some impetus, it was forced open…

Urahara just looked at what was happening and started to smirk. "Almost time I think," was all that he said as he watched the spectacle of Ichigo defending himself from the onslaught of the attack without a bat of an eye. Ichigo was starting to strain at the power, and started to raise his sword. The result? A thin line of reiatsu came out of Ichigo's blade and moved quickly up the giant hollow, coming from the bottom to its mask, not only making it stop its attack, but turning and retreating. The backlash of the attack blew Ishida back just a bit, while everyone else didn't move that much.

'Impossible…' both Rukia and Ishida thought as Tatsuki wept in joy, with a crazy grin on her face. She wouldn't let anyone know it, but she was worried about the orange-haired idiot. As she saw Ichigo smirk as the energy radiated around him, he did the victory sign before grinning slightly and yelling out his victory for all to hear.

"He's incredible…"

"Superb. I understand now what the manager saw in him." Tessai spoke as he watched the giant sky crest in the sky start closing and disappearing. He then saw the large column of energy and quickly got worried.

"Hey," Ichigo said, getting the Quincy's attention quickly. Looking at the Shinigami, he quickly asked what he wanted. "You could at least thank me, you know. We cleaned up your mess for you. Don't you think that's worth a 'thank you'" He said before starting to feel wobbly and fell on the concrete. "I can't stand…" Ichigo started to say before his zanpaktou started glowing and flowing uncontrollably. "W-What's happening?!" Ichigo asked, but it was too low of a voice to have anyone hear him.

"The zanpakutou…it's shape is starting to deform. Was it because of what he did?" Ishida asked himself as he looked towards the other shinigami. Hearing her repeat that it was because he suddenly released his true power, he got alarmed at what she said next. The fact that his body wouldn't last at the rate the energy was going. Ignoring the other shinigami nearby knowing that she was now panicking, Ishida went over to the blade and put his foot on it, making his bow grow to an immense size once again. He put the thought of teasing the dragon later, now he had to save someone. Ignoring the pain that shot through his whole arm after stepping on the blade, Ishida pointed his bow upwards and pulled on the string, shooting an intense arrow straight up into the air. 'This is…all I…have to do. I'll just…release the spirit…power Kurosaki can't…control,' Ishida thought to himself as he kept firing arrow after arrow.

A few seconds later, Ichigo started to wake up and saw Ishida firing several large arrows. He then saw his arm. "What are you doing?!"

"Shut up!"

"Your arm…it's all bloody!"

"Shut up! I told you…if we don't both survive this, we won't have each other to beat up. Survive so I can beat on you, and you, you try and beat me, too, Kurosaki Ichigo!" While he was saying this to Ichigo, he made an apology to himself, and more importantly, to his sensei as well. 'I'm sorry sensei. I…wanted to avoid seeing the truth by hating Shinigami. I never wanted to see the truth, the truth that I couldn't save you in your time of need. Today…I will save a Shinigami. Can I be forgiven sensei? I am a weak student who couldn't give up my life for yours.' At this, Ichigo's blade returned to normal. Ishida fell to his knees. "Can I ever be forgiven…Grandfather?" Ishida said before turning to see Tatsuki as well.

"Man, how could I beat someone with that look on their face…" Ichigo mumbled as Ishida turned his head to where Tatsuki was standing. "Arisawa…what I said to Ichigo…it applies to you as well."

* * *

Atop a tall building, behind her erotic book, Fuujin watched the scenes unfold before her.

'I must remember to report it to the Taicho later once he feels better.' Hot anger surged through her as she thought of what that damnible Quincy did to him. She swore that if he wasn't useful to them………Her eyes then widen as she felt a strong spiritual pressure from behind her.

"It has been a while Kyouran Fuujin." A calm, yet soft voice said from behind her. Placing her book away, she turned to face a woman in black shinigami robes, a white cloak over them. She had black hair, her bangs flowing just slightly to the side of her grayish green eyes, a long black ponytail coming to about mid back. Finishing the look, a white scarf was wrapped around her neck and a white ornament adoring her hair as well. A zanpakuto rested at the left of her waste.

"Yes it has been a while Kuchiki Byakuya."

* * *

FireSamurai: HAHA! TAKE THAT! We made Byakuya female!

Dragon and Sword Master: shakes head anyways, please don't send flames about Byakuya being female. now then, if you have noticed, we've been pretty much following the story of Bleach. However, starting next arc, well...

FireSamurai: And don't forget! We still have that poll for Ark's love interest!

Current Poll:

Fuujin: 1 (my vote)

Comay: 1 (DASM's vote)

Nina: 1

Anyone else: 0

Harem: 0

DASM: that is for next time! Ja! And remember to review!


	10. Soul to Soul Chat

FireSamurai: (Trumpets play) WE HAVE MADE A GLORIOUS RETURN FELLOW READERS OF FANFICTION!

DASM: (smacks Fire on the back of the head with Kooriken) Baka….

FireSamurai: (nurses bump) Teme…..

DASM: Anyway, we are very grateful to all the readers and reviewers of this story. Thanks to you, we have almost 100 reviews and over 21,000 hits. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

FireSamurai: Now to answer questions.

Anonymous Reviewer Fifi: If we changed a female Byakuya's name to something else then they wouldn't know it was Byakuya in the first place.

Cyberweasel89: We are sorry to hear that you're template broke Itachi-chan, may you be able to fix it as soon as possible. If you need any addition information please PM either of us and we'll supply the details you need.

Hououza and Akatsuki Leader13: thank you for the praise from the both of you. Unfortunately, you will have to wait a while to see the bad assness that is Tatsuki's shikai, sorry... (insert anime sweatdrop) Do know that we have put a lot of thought into it and even changed it around so many times…..but yeah…..just wait and see……….

Vampireguy31: we'll see what happens in the polls my friend. Although Ark-san here thinks it's all troublesome...

Evilnaruto15: There's already that many evil narutos?! _ Anyways, thanks for the reviews. We have most of the powers figured out but if we need any help we will let you know.

All Other Readers and Reviewers: Thank you for your support and we will do our best to continue to please you.

DASM: Now on with our story.

Disclaimer: We do not own Bleach but if we did our clothes would be extra clean and stain free!

* * *

Chapter 10: Soul to Soul Chat

"How long has it been Kyouran?" The noblewoman asked. "50 years? 100?" Fuu could only smile sadly at the question.

"Last I counted, it was 142." Byakuya nodded at the answer, turning her head away slowly, as if looking for something but not finding it.

"It seems almost like yesterday…" She then turned her head back towards Fuu. "You know, he won't be safe for long," and to this, Fuujin nodded.

"We know about that, and we plan to deal with it when we have to. More importantly, it's obviously that you aren't here for the renegade shinigami, especially the boy. If you were, there wouldn't be this many of you." Fuujin said, sensing more then just the female captain in front of her. Byakuya only nodded at this as Byakuya explained, "With this many hollows around, we sent as many as we could." The captain then turned around, ready to leave.

"Can you tell me one thing Kyouran?" to this, the wind mistress just raised an eyebrow at what she wanted to know. Letting her continue, Byakuya asked, "Is he doing well here?" Fuujin chuckled at the question.

"You of all people should know what he would say if you asked him that," to which the Kuchiki could only smile at.

"He would say 'troublesome woman' and then start smoking…," both chuckling at what would most likely be said and done by the white-haired male. With that said, the female captain of the sixth squad captain shunpoed (Flash Stepped) away, her business done…for now anyways.

* * *

Three days passed between the battle between the Last Quincy and the Shinigami and everything went back to normal…well normal enough for people like Tatsuki and Ichigo among their friends as well. After the battle, it seemed as if all hollow activity stopped, which was odd.

Now, both Tatsuki and Ichigo were walking to school, Ichigo on the outside, protecting the girl from harm, just as he did all those years ago with his mother. While Tatsuki didn't seem to either notice or mind, she was currently acting, for a lack of a better word, motherly towards her orange-haired friend.

"Come on Tatsuki, for the last time, I'm fine," Ichigo said, agitated at the fact that Tatsuki was becoming overprotective of him. He bet that if someone saw the two of them walking right now, they'd call them boyfriend and girlfriend, before beaten to a bloody pulp by the two.

"We don't know what happened after you defeated that Menos Grande and we still aren't sure if your energy will skyrocket like that again," Tatsuki said and she was right. Both Rukia and Tatsuki were worried about Ichigo when his energy backfired on himself. The two came to an agreement that Ichigo didn't like at all; the two women would go on hollow runs and only if he were needed would he be called. Scowling at the action that Tatsuki was doing now, they quickly made their way to school.

While school was normal at most, both Tatsuki and Ichigo noticed some small differences between their friends.

Once the timid and kind Orihime, Tatsuki noticed a small amount of confidence in her friend, however, she noticed that she was still skittish whenever Ichigo was around. The same could be said about Chad. Ichigo noticed that the bronze giant seemed to be more at peace, as if he came to a conclusion after a long time of fighting against something within himself. However, what both of them noticed the most was that the chain smoker was missing in action, and it seemed that a few of his friends were missing as well. Whenever either Ichigo or Tatsuki asked about Ark, his friends quickly came up with another topic. It was starting to get frustrating.

Another topic that was starting to get on his nerves was Rukia. Ever since the duel with Ishida, she started to become distant and colder than usual. It didn't bother Tatsuki as much since the work they did was the same, but for Ichigo it evaded him as to why she would suddenly do a mood swing such as that.

"Tatsuki, why do you think Rukia's changed so much after those events?" Ichigo asked as Tatsuki stopped for a while in thought.

"Who knows, could be several things on her mind that we don't know about. If she wants to talk about it, she most likely will…" she said as they both finally got to the school grounds. Heading through the school day, both Tatsuki and Ichigo were glad when lunch came, an intermission from the boring prison known as school.

* * *

Rukia was sitting in a tree, just watching the scenery, or that's what anyone else would see her doing. However, Rukia was reflecting on the past and mulling over the fact that it probably wouldn't be long until someone found out that she was missing as well as giving her power to a mortal. She was so into her thoughts that she didn't hear Orihime or Tatsuki and a bunch of other girls ask her to join them for lunch until Tatsuki yelled up to her. "Come on Rukia, you need to interact with your friends…"

Rukia just shrugged and climbed down before joining the girls, grateful that Tatsuki was trying to include her. Although, the problem was that soon she would be gone from this world, and she assumed that all memories of her would be erased from the students that didn't have any spiritual powers. Sighing quietly to herself, she listened in on the conversations going around. Laughing at the fact that Orihime's breasts took in the calories, a likely idea, Rukia just continued with her lunch until one of the girls asked her something that really made her stop and think.

"Hey Rukia, can I ask you something? Do you have a crush on Ichigo?" At this, Rukia spat out her juice in bewilderment as Tatsuki subtly listened in as well. This was going to be interesting. When Rukia didn't answer, Mao just continued. "I'll take that as a maybe. But what exactly is your relationship with Ichigo?"

"He's just a friend, a friend," Rukia quickly said, blushing in embarrassment at the question.

"Mao, that's not a question you can just ask like that!" Michiru spoke up, but Mao quickly replied that she wanted to ask it herself but didn't have the courage to do so. After that, the girls split up into their own small conversations.

"I'll think about it…" Rukia said to Orihime's suggestion, not really wanting to harm the girl's…unique tastes. Then again, knowing that she wouldn't be there for long, that's what she always said and Orihime brought that up to her attention. "I guess I do…" was all she said, not wanting them to know the truth of her existence.

* * *

While this was happening with the girls, the guys were also having lunch by themselves on the roof. Ichigo invited Ishida to join them but the Quincy first refused.

"No thanks," was his quick reply to which Keigo yelled out at how rude Ishida was being. Ichigo was a bit annoyed at how stubborn he was being over something as trivial as eating lunch with him and voiced his thoughts.

"Oh come on, It's no big deal. Besides, Keigo's buying," and at this Keigo shouted in surprise that he was going to buy for someone he didn't even want to join them.

"Well…if you insist," he then rose from his seat and adjusted his glasses before they all headed up towards the roof with their respective lunches. Ichigo was eating a bento, Ishida had a small submarine sandwich, while the others were just eating small snacks. The only problem was that the atmosphere wasn't exactly pleasant, hell it was barely even present at all.

Keigo was looking through the black cloud that was enveloping the group and killing off any thoughts of conversation. _What am I doing here..._ he thought to himself as he kept munching on his small bread that he bought from a vending machine and while he was in deep thought, he didn't see nor hear the bronze giant that was Sado walk up behind him.

"Hey Keigo," the giant said, scaring the shorter person halfway to death. Once he knew that Keigo calmed down some, he then asked if he was all right since he seemed a little on edge. When he denied the claim, Chad looked skeptical at the young man before looking to the side and seeing Ishida there before sitting down.

"Hey Ichigo, why did you invite me? If it's because you feel responsible because of my injuries, you're wrong and wasting your time. I don't need anyone's pity and I certainly don't want your friendship."

"Just eat your lunch and shut up. I just felt like it, that's all. It certainly had nothing to do with sympathy or because I like you. You should consider yourself lucky to be eating with us instead of alone." Ichigo retorted as the Quincy looked towards him with a mocking look.

"Oh, so I'm supposed to be grateful here? You have a lot of nerve…did it ever occur to you that I prefer eating alone?"

"I prefer eating alone as well so why don't you just look the other way?" Ichigo asked as he glared at the Quincy. He was starting to wonder why he asked him in the first place.

_Those two are like twins…_ Mizuro thought to himself as he watched the two teens continue to argue, ignorant of everything that was going around those two.

* * *

Fuujin sighed as she stood on top of the apartment complex that she and the others stayed in, their leader resting below. Since the hollow attack, she has been worried for Ark, especially after what (in her mind) the slimy bastard of a Quincy did and the effects it had on him. On top of that, they had to help clean up his mess to boot. She sighed once more. And then her meeting Byakuya on the roof……..

"Still thinking?" a voice said from behind her, startling her out of her. Jumping slightly, she turned to see Ryu leaning against the doorway.

"Do you really have to do that?" Fuu sighed, getting her heart beat back down to normal. Ryu's answer was merely a shrug.

"So how is he?" She asked after a moment.

"He is doing better." He answered. "Maybe not 100% but better."

"At least he is getting better faster this time around……" She said, which Ryu only nodded grimly. A few moments went by in silence, both shinigami in their thoughts.

"You think she would come for him Ryu?" Fuu said. Once again Ryu merely shrugged.

"Hard to say. Her orders were only to help clear out the hollows. I would assume so she has nothing to do with Ark." Ryu said. "You know how she can be about the rules." To this, Fuu merely chuckled.

"Yeah," Fuujin smiled slightly, "She always was a –" But she stopped in mid sentence as she saw a tuff of white hair leave the building.

"What is he doing?" Ryu said.

"I don't know but get the others. We are going after him."

* * *

Not knowing of the dangers that were awaiting the two young shinigami, both Tatsuki and Ichigo talked about their normal yet crazy life. As soon as they left the gate that separated the school from the confines of the real world, a large amount of reiatsu descended upon them, making them both stagger under the pressure. Looking around, it didn't take long for the two to find who was producing.

"Who...are you?" Ichigo asked, as the man with the fox-like grin calmly headed toward them. Bending down so that he could be face to face with Ichigo he said, "names are unimportant for people about to die...,"

* * *

The sunset reflected its beautiful colors on the river, Ark admiring the beauty. Sighing to himself, he took a cigarette out, lit it and sighed once more.

"Alright," He said. "We are alone. You can come out now shinigami."

* * *

FireSamurai: And So ends another Chapter.

DASM: The plot thickens once more! What is the connection between Byakuya and Ark's group? Who is the shinigami that is out to kill Ichigo and Tatsuki? And, Who are the Shinigami that Ark sensed? Find out Next chapter!

FireSamurai: And now for our current results for Ark's Love interest.

Fuujin: 2

Nina: 2

Comay: 1

Harem: 1 (this surprised us both)

Anyone else: 0

DASM: Interesting results so far…..

FireSamurai: Indeed! Remember! Polls are still open till we say so! So keep voting for who shall be Ark's love interest!

DASM: Till next time, Ja Ne.


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